South Korean soccer hopes to win Asian Cup, KFA confirms unusual
South Korea"s national soccer team.
The Korean Football Association (KFA) has set a reward for winning the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Asian Cup. It"s unusual for a reward to be set before the tournament has even begun, but it"s a sign of how badly the team wants the trophy.
The KFA held a board meeting on Thursday morning at the Jongno Football Hall in Jongno-gu, Seoul, and decided to pay out 50 million won per player if they win the Asian Cup.
This is the first time since the 2011 tournament in Qatar that the KFA has confirmed the amount of the prize money ahead of the Asian Cup.
Since Chung Mong-kyu took over as president in 2013, the KFA has determined the reward based on the team"s performance at major tournaments and other circumstances. Both the 2015 World Cup, where Korea finished runners-up, and the 2018 World Cup in Russia, where Korea defeated Germany, were finalized after the tournament.
In contrast, the payout ahead of the Asian Cup is an example of how desperate Korean soccer is to win the Asian Cup.
South Korea won the inaugural tournament in 1956, and four years later, in 1960, they won back-to-back titles. Since then, however, South Korea hasn"t won the title, finishing as runner-up four times. A win in Qatar next year would mark their first Asian Cup title in 64 years.
Chung Mong-kyu, president of the Korean Football Association (KFA), speaks with the national team players.
"We had a good result at the World Cup in Qatar, where we decided on the rewards in advance, so I think we decided on the rewards ahead of the tournament as well," said a KFA official.
The KFA finalized the rewards about six months before the World Cup in Qatar last year. The players responded to the carrot of the reward by reaching the round of 16 at the World Cup in Qatar, their first away World Cup in 12 years.