The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism will conduct a full survey on the grass conditions of 27 soccer fields where K-League games are held with the Korea Professional Football Federation to solve the problem of grass management at soccer fields, which has recently been controversial due to the influence of players' performance.

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism announced on the 27th that it will establish a department dedicated to grass management within the Professional Football Federation to investigate advanced cases such as Japan. Starting in April, the K-League stadium will be investigated to analyze problems and causes of grass conditions during the first half of the year, and to come up with customized improvement measures for each stadium. In particular, considering the characteristics of the stadium and climate conditions, the government plans to devise improvement measures such as replacing aging grass, improving the quality of artificial grass, and managing heating and drainage facilities, and preparing guidelines for lawn maintenance and management and strengthening on-site inspections. In addition, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism plans to support the improvement of stadiums, including the replacement of soccer field grass, with local governments through a public offering to support the renovation and repair of public sports facilities starting this year, and expand the stadiums subject to a full investigation later.

A policy official from the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism said, "We will come up with a plan to substantially improve the state of turf and strengthen cooperation and communication with the federation and clubs to establish a continuous management system."

[Reporter Kim Jihan]