Football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

is run by the

Korea Football Association The Korea Football Association () is the governing body of football and futsal within South Korea. It sanctions professional, semi-professional and amateur football in South Korea. Founded in 1933, the governing body became affiliated with F ...

. The association administers the national football team as well as the

K League K League (Hangul: K리그) is South Korea's professional football league. It includes first division K League 1 and second division K League 2. History Until the 1970s, South Korean football operated two major football leagues, the National S ...

. Football is the most popular sport in South Korea.

Beginning

In ancient times,

Silla Silla or Shilla (57 BCE – 935 CE) ( , Old Korean: Syera, Old Japanese: Siraki2) was a Korean kingdom located on the southern and central parts of the Korean Peninsula. Silla, along with Baekje and Goguryeo, formed the Three Kingdoms of K ...

, one of

Three Kingdoms of Korea Samhan or the Three Kingdoms of Korea () refers to the three kingdoms of Goguryeo (고구려, 高句麗), Baekje (백제, 百濟), and Silla (신라, 新羅). Goguryeo was later known as Goryeo (고려, 高麗), from which the modern name ''Kor ...

, had a ball game called "Chuk-guk" (

Hangul The Korean alphabet, known as Hangul, . Hangul may also be written as following South Korea's standard Romanization. ( ) in South Korea and Chosŏn'gŭl in North Korea, is the modern official writing system for the Korean language. The let ...

: 축국,

Hanja Hanja (Hangul: ; Hanja: , ), alternatively known as Hancha, are Chinese characters () used in the writing of Korean. Hanja was used as early as the Gojoseon period, the first ever Korean kingdom. (, ) refers to Sino-Korean vocabulary, wh ...

: 蹴鞠). Though Chukguk is similar to today’s football in many aspects, it features the distinctive rule that the ball should stay in the air during game play with the net also being mounted at a fixed distance above the ground
/ref>. However, Koreans first saw the present version of football in 1882 when British crew members played a game while their vessel, , was visiting the Port of Inchon, Port of Jemulpo. Regularized football introduction was the time of adoption of football as physical education course at National Seoul Foreign Language School in 1904 and the first official match in Korea was the game between

Korea Sports Club Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic o ...

and Korea YMCA at Seoul

Dongdaemun Stadium Dongdaemun Stadium was a sports complex in Seoul, South Korea and included a multi-purpose stadium, a baseball park and other sports facilities. It was located near Dongdaemun or Great East Gate. The surrounding Dongdaemun market had many vendo ...

in 1905. In 1902, after the establishment of a football team at Paichai Academy in Seoul, there was a footballing boom throughout

Korea Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic o ...

. that saw many football clubs and school teams formed by the 1910s. Also in

Seoul Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) as stated iArticle 103 ...

, many famous football clubs including unofficial national team

Joseon FC Joseon (; ; Middle Korean: 됴ᇢ〯션〮 Dyǒw syéon or 됴ᇢ〯션〯 Dyǒw syěon), officially the Great Joseon (; ), was the last dynastic kingdom of Korea, lasting just over 500 years. It was founded by Yi Seong-gye in July 1392 and re ...

were founded between the 1910s and 1920s, and they usually had a rivalry against football clubs in

Pyongyang Pyongyang (, , ) is the capital and largest city of North Korea, where it is known as the "Capital of the Revolution". Pyongyang is located on the Taedong River about upstream from its mouth on the Yellow Sea. According to the 2008 populatio ...

, the second biggest city in Korea. In 1933

Kyungsung FC Kyungsung Football Club was the Korean football club based in the city of Seoul. The term Kyungsung or Gyeongseong was used instead of Seoul during the period of Japanese rule. After independence from Japan, the club revived and changed the name ...

, named according to then Seoul's name, was formed and it was the only Korean club which won the

Emperor's Cup , commonly known as or also Japan FA Cup is a Japanese football competition. It has the longest tradition of any football match in Japan, dating back to 1921, before the formation of the J.League, Japan Football League and their predecessor, J ...

in Japan. The first Korean national football tournament named

All Joseon Football Tournament The All Joseon Football Tournament ( ko, 전조선축구대회, 全朝鮮蹴球大會) was the first Korean national football competition, held annually by the Joseon Sports Council or Joseon Football Association. The tournament of the Joseon S ...

was held in 1921 after Joseon Sports Council was created in 1920. In 1928, Joseon Referee Association was created. Before the creation of the Joseon Football Association in 1933, two organizations hosted the competitions. The creation of Joseon Football Association led to the establishment of several prominent club sides on the peninsula as Korean football began to enter a different form. The All Joseon Football Tournament, which had until 1932 been a tournament almost exclusively between academic institutions, included a "professional" class from 1933 which, along with the immensely popular Kyungsung–Pyongyang intercity football series, raised interest levels in the sport greatly.

References

External links

* Shin Myung-chul: Histories of Korean sports by event - Football
(1)(2)(3)(4)(5)(6)(7)(8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14)
{{Korea-stub

Beginning

See also

References

External links