It has already been three years since the Asian quarter system was introduced in the V-League of Professional Volleyball. Players are showing strong performances, but they say that the effect of resolving the overheating of the free agent market is insignificant.
The Asian quarter system was introduced to the V-League from the 2023-2024 season. The plan was aimed at increasing the competitiveness of the V-League by bringing in talented players at relatively low prices. In fact, the men's Asian quarter is paid 100,000 U.S. dollars in the first year and 120,000 dollars in the second year. In the women's quarter, the first year is 120,000 dollars, and the second year is 150,000 dollars. The maximum annual salary is about 210 million won, which allows the team to increase its capacity without much burden. Since last season, the number of participating countries has been expanded from 10 to 64.
Contrary to expectations that the V-League needs an adaptor, the team has quickly established itself as a success. Just in the last season, outside heater Ali (Woori Card), outside heater Yaqoob (KB Insurance), Ryohay Libero (copyright), women's Apogit Spiker Mega (former Jeonggwanjang), outside heater Wipawi (former Hyundai Engineering & Construction and current Jeonggwanjang) and middle blocker Peach (Heungguk Life Insurance) stood out with their skills that surpass those of Korean players.
Ali ranked fifth in scoring in the regular league (529 points) in 35 games in his first season, and proved his value by ranking first in the overall offense (55.82%) and first in the rear offense (63.16% success rate). 메이저놀이터
Mega shook the women's team. In the second season, it ranked third in scoring (802 points) in 32 games and No. 1 in overall attack rate (48.06 percent).
It is also ahead of foreign players who have to pay at least $400,000 (about 570 million won) for men and at least $250,000 (about 350 million won) for women.
However, successive performances by Asian quarter players do not affect the FA market. It has become important to draw as many resources as possible.
In the men's division, Lim Sung-jin transferred from KEPCO to KB Insurance, resulting in a series of transfers. Outside heater Kim Jung-ho (Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance → KEPCO) was paid 600 million won (600,000 U.S. dollars) and outside heater Song Myung-geun (Woori Card → Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance) was paid 450 million won (428,400 dollars) to join the FA. It is a considerable amount of money. However, neither of them has a single record of being listed in the top 10 in offense or defense in the regular league. Unless both of them increase their offensive share as the main players in the new team and play an active role, it is not easy to achieve as much as Ali last season.
"The performance is lower than that of the players in the Asian quarter, but they are receiving higher salaries. This is an abnormal structure," a volleyball source said. "Asian quarter players feel discouraged. This is because the players in the warm-up zone receive 300 to 400 million won more than themselves."
Another volleyball official also pointed out, "I don't know how to evaluate the skills of domestic players when I see Asian quarter players such as Mega and Wipawi who have played well this season," adding, "Who would recognize the skills of domestic players when comparing salaries?"