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| Photo: Provided by the Korea Football Association |
[Sports Today reporter Shin Seo-young] Korea Football Park — positioned to become a new growth engine for South Korean soccer — held its official opening ceremony, marking the start of the Korea Football Association’s Cheonan era.
The Korea Football Association (KFA) staged the official opening at 2 p.m. on the 7th at the indoor football arena inside Korea Football Park in Ipjang-myeon, Seobuk-gu, Cheonan, South Chungcheong Province.
The ceremony attracted a broad roster of domestic leaders, including KFA President Chung Mong-gyu; Kim Seok-pil, acting mayor of Cheonan; Kim Dae-hyun, 2nd Vice Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism; Kim Tae-hum, governor of South Chungcheong Province; Yoo Seung-min, president of the Korean Sport & Olympic Committee; and Kwon Oh-gap, chairman of the Korea Professional Football League. International guests included Sanjiban, Director of Member Associations at FIFA, and Vahid, Deputy General Secretary of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). Corporate and civic partners who attended included Ham Young-joo, chairman of Hana Financial Group; Joo Yong-jung, CEO of TV Chosun; and Jo Ho-tae, chairman of the Red Devils supporters group.
From the football community, figures tied to Korea’s 2002 World Cup success were present: Hong Myung-bo, head coach of the men’s national team; Kim Byung-ji, CEO of Gangwon FC; Lee Dong-gook, technical director of Yongin FC; and former stars Seol Ki-hyeon, Song Chong-guk, Lee Chun-soo, and Choi Eun-sung. Other attendees included former national team coach Lee Hoe-taek; Kim Ho-gon, chairman of the Football Love Sharing Foundation; Jo Young-jeung, president of the Korean OB Football Association; former Ulsan Hyundai coach Kim Do-hoon; and Koo Ja-cheol, youth advisor for Jeju.
In his commemorative address, President Chung Mong-gyu described Korea Football Park as the fruition of long-term infrastructure investment that will drive Korean soccer forward. He said the site will be more than a national-team training ground: it will be an education hub developing coaches, referees and players, and a multi-platform for football exchange that unites elite athletes, amateur clubs and local communities. He pledged careful effort to ensure the park serves as a core facility to elevate South Korean soccer.
FIFA President Gianni Infantino, speaking via recorded message, congratulated the project and said he expects Korea Football Park to play an important role in the development of Korean football. He praised Korea as a model for how investment can lead to tangible progress.
In his welcome remarks, Acting Mayor Kim Seok-pil said he hopes Korea Football Park, with its excellent facilities and systematic development programs, will become a sports landmark for South Chungcheong Province and the nation.
Kim Dae-hyun, 2nd Vice Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism, offered a simple wish: that youth players at Korea Football Park will aspire to wear the national team jersey one day.
Yoo Seung-min, president of the Korean Sport & Olympic Committee, called the park a symbolic link between the present and future of Korean soccer and said he looks forward to seeing players train and compete there, coaches and administrators develop, and fans and the public join together in a richer football culture.
After a video outlining the park’s vision, KFA head of performance Kim Ji-hoon and external relations manager Park Eun-ji presented under the theme “Drawing Korea Football’s Tomorrow Together.”
They emphasized Korea Football Park’s strong accessibility — reachable within about two hours from anywhere in the country — and outlined plans to shape the future of Korean football through three dedicated functions: Landmark, Campus, and Playground.
The Landmark will host the mid- to long-term initiatives aimed at boosting national-team competitiveness. The Campus will serve as an education center producing coaches, referees, analysts and physical trainers. The Playground will be where fans and local communities connect through football culture.
Built jointly by the KFA and Cheonan City, Korea Football Park covers roughly 145,000 pyeong (about 479,000 m² / 118.5 acres) and is a massive sports complex built with approximately 400 billion KRW (approximately 300 million USD) in construction costs. After selecting Cheonan as the site in May 2019, construction officially began with a groundbreaking in April 2022. The KFA relocated its headquarters to the park in September 2025, and that October the men’s senior team and the men’s and women’s U-17 teams began training there.
The complex features a stadium capable of hosting international competitions, an indoor football arena, 11 full-size pitches, four futsal courts and five tennis courts. It also offers 82 well-appointed guest rooms, an aquatic therapy room and saunas, a fitness center with high-end training equipment, a high-performance center and dining facilities. A sports center with a pool and basketball courts is scheduled to open this summer, and a football history museum is planned for completion in December 2028.
The KFA said it will maximize the park’s value by using it for a wide range of purposes: hosting international tournaments at various levels, serving as a training base for teams, running youth competitions, holding seminars for coaches and referees, and offering parent academies.
To mark the opening, the association staged a commemorative match — the Korea Football Park U-18 Champions Cup final between FC Seoul U-18 (Seoul Osan High School) and Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors U-18 (Jeonju Youngsaeng High School).
[Sports Today reporter Shin Seo-young sports@stoo.com]
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