Three existing facilities are unavailable for rental or in disrepair
Athletes and fans want a new dedicated facility…Gwangju City is ‘difficult’
Reporter Jang Ah-myung = As the Gwangju FC professional soccer team is making waves with its flashy attacking soccer and nine-match unbeaten record, its poor training facilities are coming under scrutiny.
Gwangju FC, a civic club, has been practicing at three different stadiums, but grass and drainage problems have made it difficult to use them properly, leading to calls for a separate dedicated practice field.
According to Gwangju FC on the 12th, the team uses the Gwangju Football Center, the Gwangju Football Dedicated Stadium (formerly the Gwangju World Cup Stadium Auxiliary Stadium), and the main stadium of the Gwangju World Cup Stadium for training once or twice a week.
Since its opening in 2019, the soccer center has often been unusable due to drainage problems when it rains heavily, and the grass rots, causing a bad smell.
The soccer center and the main stadium of the World Cup Stadium are not easy to use because the number of times they can be rented is limited to around twice a week due to problems with protecting the natural grass.
Players who want to train on grass five to six days a week say, “It’s a pity that we can’t use the stadium to our fullest,” in post-match interviews.
In a recent press conference after the Ulsan game, Gwangju FC head coach Lee Jung-hyo said, “I hope the city will answer the question about the environment of Gwangju FC since the players have shown it (through their performance).”
Gwangju FC fans have also been calling for a dedicated practice facility, hanging banners at home games saying, “We are a professional club, but our training environment is amateur,” and calling for a sports field to be built.
Gwangju City and the Gwangju Sports Council, which consigns the stadium to the city, have been reluctant to build a new practice field, saying that the difficulty of using the stadium will be resolved when the renovation of the football center is completed in the first half of next year.
Gwangju City, which spent 2.92 billion won to build the soccer center, plans to spend another 2 billion won by the end of April or early May next year to complete drainage work and grass cultivation.
The soccer stadium, which has been criticized for its shaky seats, will also be repaired by early next month.토스카지노
“The soccer center has a problem due to faulty foundation work, but the city will claim the right to construct it from the first contractor,” said Kang Gwang-ho, head of the World Cup team at the Gwangju Sports Council. “Once all three venues are repaired, practice rentals will be smooth,” he said.
Lee Bu-ho, head of the Gwangju Sports Promotion Division, said, “We are working on normalization by launching an implementation design for the drainage work of the soccer center.” “We are not considering building an additional dedicated practice field as we provide 10 billion won a year for the operation of the Gwangju FC secretariat and players,” he said.