WK League News

South Korea’s most-capped international and all-time top goalscorer Ji Soyun has reinforced the possibility of a national team boycott over the treatment of the national women’s football team. If the Korea Football Association (KFA) does not accept players’ demands for better conditions, Ji and several other players will refuse to play for South Korea at the AFC Women’s Asian Cup this March. The major regional tournament also serves as a qualifying competition for the 2027 FIFA Women’s World Cup.

Ji, who has returned to the WK League ahead of this season after eighteen months at Seattle Reign in the NWSL, made her international debut in 2006 and has been a core member of South Korea’s squad ever since. One of few female footballers to be a widely recognised household name in Korea, Ji is a living legend of the sport. She is also an active board member of the Korea Pro Footballers’ Association and frequently uses her status to advocate for the rights of players.

Read more: KPFA release statement clarifying ‘business class seats’ controversy

This week, Ji told Yonhap that she has accepted that speaking out about the unsatisfactory conditions for the women’s team may lead to her not being selected, and could even be the end of her international career. She is quoted as saying “my heart is heavy, but change requires action”. Ji emphasised that players want dialogue, not conflict, with the KFA.

In 2025, the KFA allocated 1.9 billion won (approx. $132,000) of its budget to the operation of the women’s team. The men’s team budget was over ten times larger at 19.6 billion won (approx. $1,360,000). The KFA has pointed to a marketability gap between the teams, with the men’s team drawing in most of the profits. However, Ji pointed to the need for investment to help women’s football grow, citing the example of England, where women’s football has surged in popularity in recent years, especially since the country’s first major trophy win at Euro 2022.

Development in Korean women’s football has been largely stagnant since the early 2000s, when the national team qualified for the Women’s World Cup for the first time and the WK League was established. Meanwhile elsewhere in the world, women’s football has seen an explosion in popularity and become a lucrative business in its own right. As investment in the women’s game increases in other regions, South Korea will be left even further behind if the KFA does not improve efforts to support its women’s teams.

Despite a lack of funding, South Korea’s women have enjoyed success on the international stage, winning the 2010 FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup and finishing third at the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup in the same year. The senior team has won the East Asian Cup twice and claimed the bronze medal at the Asian Games on three occasions. They were runners-up at the 2022 Asian Cup.