Ex-football commentator Shin Moon-sun to run for KFA president

Shin Moon-sun, a former television football commentator who later turned to football administration and academics, announced Tuesday he will run for president of the national football governing body.

Shin, 66, has turned the battle for the presidency of the Korea Football Association (KFA) into a three-horse race, with the incumbent Chung Mong-gyu and former men’s national team head coach Huh Jung-moo also in the running.

“The KFA must change. This Chung Mong-gyu regime must be the last one run by a corporate executive,” Shin said in a statement. “I will be the type of CEO who gets his hands dirty.”

The election is on Jan. 8, 2025, with the term for the new president scheduled to begin on Jan. 22. Candidates must complete their registration between Dec. 25 and 27.

Shin had a three-year playing career in the K League starting in 1983, and became a more prominent figure in his post-playing career as a popular TV analyst starting in the late 1980s.

He became a professor in the graduate school of records, archives and information science at Myongji University in Seoul in 2011, and served as CEO of the K League club Seongnam FC in 2014.

Shin lost the election for commissioner of the K League in 2017, coming up short in a bid to become the first former player to run the South Korean professional league.

Shin took shots at Chung for driving the KFA to ruins with his poor leadership.

“The KFA has reached this point because the president who doesn’t have a proper understanding of the technical and business areas of football got himself involved with a top-down approach,” Shin said. “His incompetence led to problems on the performance side, with South Korea failing to qualify for the Olympics, but he has caused even bigger issues on the business side because the commercial value of the national football team has nosedived.”

Shin said he is the right person to lead the KFA because of his intimate knowledge of the technical aspects of football and his expertise in business and administration.

“I will try to stabilize the KFA as quickly as possible,” Shin added. “I will focus on expanding the football market and serve our fans, athletes and corporate sponsors the best I can.”