‘Real Suwon’ somehow became a second division… Investment and management are also ‘naked.’

Suwon Samsung, a “master of tradition” who won four K-League titles (1998, 1999, 2004, 2008) and five Korea Football Association (FA) Cups (2002, 2009, 2010, 2016, 2019), was humiliated by falling to the second division for the first time since its foundation.

Suwon was automatically demoted to K League 2 (second division) next season by tying Gangwon FC without scoring in the final round of 38th round of Hana One Q K League 1 2023 Final B at Suwon World Cup Stadium on the 2nd.

Suwon, founded in 1995 and has been on the K-League stage since 1996, will experience its first relegation from the second division since the team was founded.

Suwon lifted the regular league championship trophy three seasons after entering the K League and won two consecutive games the following year, establishing itself as an emerging prestigious club. 메이저 토토사이트

He also won the championship in 2004 and 2008, establishing his position as a “soccer master” by marking his fourth career championship star.

At that time, he was even nicknamed “Real Suwon” when he heard a joke that he could form a team at the level of the first team of other clubs with just bench members.

However, the fall began when the operating entity of the Samsung Sports Group moved from Samsung Group to Cheil Worldwide in 2014.

Suwon Samsung, professional basketball Samsung Thunder, women’s basketball Samsung Life Bloomings, professional volleyball Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance Bluefangs, and professional baseball Samsung Lions were all absorbed under Cheil Worldwide.

Although the motto was to create profits through marketing advancement, the club went into austerity to avoid a deficit structure, and eventually, a vicious cycle continued in which it could not recruit good players at a time when it lacked funding.

In the K-League in 2013, when the promotion system was first introduced, Suwon spent 9.067.42 billion won in total annual salary to rank No. 1 in labor costs, and the following year, it gave up the lead to Jeonbuk Hyundai (11.8 billion won) and ranked second (9.864 billion won).

Suwon’s team labor cost decreased to 8.7 billion won in 2015, and after falling to 7.6 billion won, it remained in the 7 to 8 billion won range, but last year it ranked eighth among K League 1 clubs (excluding Kim Cheon).

This year’s K-League winner Ulsan Hyundai nearly tripled its player labor costs from 6.3 billion won in 2013 to 17.6 billion won last year.

Due to the lack of active investment in players, the team’s ranking has also declined.

Suwon, which ranked second in a row from 2014 to 2015, ended in 8th place in 2019 and fell to 8th place in 2020, 6th place in 2021, and 10th place in 2022.

Suwon, which managed to survive the promotion playoff last year, fell to the bottom this year and experienced a second-tier relegation without even a chance to advance to the promotion PO.

Suwon, which stopped at a standstill in labor costs for the past 10 years, has shifted its goal from winning to remaining in the Final A, but has recently shrunk to remaining in the First Division. It is important to consider whether reasonable investment has been made.

Not only the finances but also the unfortunate management of the club’s front office are being criticized by fans.

Suwon acquired Oh Hyun-kyu from Celtic (Scotland) early this year and received 3 million euros (approximately 4.2 billion won or approximately an estimate). In fact, the amount is almost half of the annual salary of players.

However, it was regrettable to see if he would reinforce players to fill the void left by Oh. In February this year, he recruited Mulic, but ended up with only four goals and one assist, effectively failing to recruit him.

On top of that, he was not free from criticism that he tried to pass the club’s crisis only to “replacement of coaches.”

Since the resignation of director Lee Im-saeng in July 2020, there has been a vicious cycle of repeated “director resignation-acting system” for three years from coach Park Gun-ha → acting director Joo Seung-jin → director Lee Byung-geun → acting director Choi Sung-yong → director Kim Byung-soo → acting system of Yeom Ki-hoon.

The stopgap measure to overcome only the crisis of the moment without a long-term vision for selecting players and selecting the head coach eventually returned to the boomerang of the second division.