Sung Woo Chang (Department of Mathematics) and JoongBum Lee (Department of Materials Science and Engineering) are the founding members of the KAIST Intramural Football Association (KIFA). Created in October 2012, KIFA currently consists of eight football teams: Woori Team, Hurricane, KIFC, GeukLak, KGS, Gyeongnam Family, MS Milan, and Aquila. The KAIST Herald met with the two members to find out more.

What made you want to make KIFA?
[Chang] There are two types of football events; the Hurricane Cup and the International Cup. These are in the form of a tournament. In football, a tournament and a league are two different concepts. A tournament is when two teams compete with each other to move on to the next round, while a league allows for an equal number of rounds for all participating teams. Each team gets to add up all the points after the final round and the team with the highest points wins the cup. So I thought it would be nice to make a league. KAIST has three football events now: two tournaments and a league conducted by KIFA.

How did you create KIFA? Was it not difficult to come to an agreement?
[Chang] Since I knew it was difficult to start this on my own, I contacted and gathered the captains from eight football teams at KAIST to have a meeting regarding this matter.
[Lee] Something that allowed us to agree on the idea of making a league was that everyone was actually hoping to mingle with other teams and compete with each other. Also, we had to make reservations to meet other teams in the past, but the reservation system is difficult to get through and normally, meeting separately does not really work out that well. Bringing up these issues led to an optimistic acceptance of KIFA.

What are possible problems with the league?
[Chang] Many teams are worried that their priority might move from small team matches and tournaments to the league, but considering the fact that KIFA is not only for the eight teams but also for all people who like football, we had to make a compromise; we are still going to run the tournaments along with the league.
[Lee] We have weekly meetings with the captains, every Tuesdays and Thursdays. We are contemplating on coming up with solutions to motivate players to participate consistently. Some ideas that came up were to give out prizes for winning teams as well as for fair plays, and give extra points to teams that win teams that rank higher.

What kind of people are you expecting to join KIFA?
[Chang] We want enthusiastic and responsible people. Since this is a long-term project, we want it to be sustainable and cannot have people dropping out easily. We also need people who are going to be referees, to make reservations for weekly matches, and to deal with sponsors. We also need professionals in each area, like a computer science major for administrating the online community and so on.

How do you plan to promote KIFA?
[Chang] We are doing it through social networking services like KakaoTalk, Facebook, and school online communities. We are also going to put up banners in school. Though it is not well known yet, we are hoping to make KIFA an official organization, which we believe will help boost up its credibility and solidify its position as a non-profit organization representing KAIST football teams and act as a guide for those who want to approach football teams, but are not sure how.

What are your future plans?
[Chang] We are planning to hold a trial league this semester. If problems come up as we run the trial league, we are going to try our best to fix those problems. After setting up a proper basis, we will start running the leagues regularly starting next semester. Other than that, we are hoping for sponsorships and a smooth management of KIFA. Since we need financial support to run the leagues, it is necessary to get support from KAIST and large corporations.
[Lee] As for the size of KIFA, it would be nice to have everyone who wants to play football to get involved. Next semester, there will be 14 teams participating and we are planning to run 13 rounds. Also, the schedule for the whole semester will be decided and posted before the next semester begins. Players will be able to simply come and enjoy football in the time allotted.  

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