SEOUL (Reuters) - The head of South Korean football (KFA) has told the country's top clubs they need to start scoring more goals if they want to attract bigger crowds.
Although there has been a slight increase in attendances at Korea's top-flight competition, the K-League attracted average crowds of less than 8,000 people per match last season.
KFA president Chung Mong-gyu said the problem would be fixed if teams started throwing caution to the wind and attacking more.
"Next year, I hope the teams can entertain fans with an aggressive brand of football," Chung told Yonhap news agency on Monday.
"The KFA will offer necessary support to make that happen."
There has been a steady decline in recent years in the number of goals in K-League matches, with just 2.22 per game in 2014.
Even the best teams have struggled to find the net with FC Seoul, who finished third in the championship, scoring just 42 goals from 38 matches.
Seoul were also involved in a defensive AFC Champions League quarter-final with Pohang Steelers in August, eventually edging their K-League rivals 3-0 in a penalty shootout after two dour goalless draws.
Chung said his views were shared by Uli Stielike, the men's national team, telling Yonhap the German thought the league was too focussed on defence.
"Stielike also said he saw some talented defenders but not a lot of players who could score," Chung said.
"With teams focusing too much on defence, the league's popularity has suffered, and we need coaches to try to make the games more fan-friendly."
Choi Kang-hee, head coach of Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors, the current K-League champions, said he would encourage his players to attack more next season.
"We all should have been playing more aggressive football before Mr. Chung brought it up," Choi said.
"We all talked about attacking early in the season but it became more difficult to do so as the season wore on. We're going to try to change that next year."
(Writing by Julian Linden in Singapore. Editing by Patrick Johnston)
