The K League 1 (

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 le ...

: K리그1) is the men's top professional football division of the

South Korean football league system The South Korean football league system contains two professional leagues, two semi-professional leagues, and various amateur leagues for Korean football clubs. The highest level of football in South Korea is the K League 1, which was founded in 1 ...

. The league is contested by twelve clubs.

History

The South Korean professional football league was founded in 1983 as the "Korean Super League", with five member clubs. The initial five clubs were

Hallelujah FC Hallelujah FC is a defunct South Korean football club. The club was officially founded on December 20, 1980 as the first professional football club in South Korea. History Hallelujah FC was founded by Choi Soon-young, president of the KFA at ...

Yukong Elephants Jeju United Football Club (Hangul: 제주 유나이티드) is a South Korean professional football club based in Jeju Province that competes in the K League 1, the top division in South Korea. In the past, the club has been known as the ''Yuko ...

, Pohang Steelworks, Daewoo Royals,

Kookmin Bank Kookmin Bank or KB Kookmin Bank () is among four of the largest banks ranked by asset value in South Korea, as of the end of March 2014. It is the largest among banks in Korea and the 60th largest in the world as of 2017. History The current KB ...

won the inaugural title, finishing one point ahead of Daewoo Royals to lift the crown. The Super League was renamed the "Korean Professional Football League", and introduced the home and away system in 1987. It was once again renamed the "K League" in 1998. It had the current format by abolishing the

K League Championship The K League Championship was the final competition (playoffs) of the K League season. The K League originally had playoffs after regular seasons, but the name of playoffs was officially decided in 2009. This competition was abolished in 2011. All ...

and the

Korean League Cup The Korean League Cup was a professional football competition in South Korean football. It was held by the K League Federation from 1986 to 2012. Sponsorship Champions List of finals Titles by club K League's principle of official statis ...

after the 2011 season, and being split into two divisions in 2013. The first division was named the "K League Classic" while the newly created second division was named the "

K League Challenge The K League 2 (Hangul: K리그2) is the men's second-highest division of the South Korean football league system. It is contested between thirteen professional clubs, and operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the K League 1. Hi ...

" and both are now part of the K League structure. Since its creation, the league has expanded from an initial 5 to 22 clubs. Of the five inaugural clubs, only Yukong, Pohang and Daewoo still compete in the K League; Kookmin Bank dropped out of the league at the end of 1984, and Hallelujah followed the season after. On 22 January 2018 the official name was changed to "K League 1".

Structure

On 5 October 2011, the league announced a plan to introduce a relegation system from the 2012 season, when two teams were relegated. In 2013, the bottom two teams were directly relegated, while the 12th team played a

relegation playoff In sports leagues, promotion and relegation is a process where teams are transferred between multiple divisions based on their performance for the completed season. Leagues that use promotion and relegation systems are often called open leagues. ...

match against the winner of the newly formed K League Challenge. From the 2013 season, as the number of teams of K League was reduced, only the 12th team is automatically relegated, with the 11th team playing a match against the winner of the K League 2 promotion playoffs. The league also introduced a split system like the Scottish Premier League in the 2012 season, where each club plays each other three times in the regular round, then the top and bottom six teams are split into Split A and Split B, in which a team plays every other team in the split once, to decide the final standings.

Other information

The K League season typically begins around March and runs to late November each year. The number of games, clubs and the systems used have varied through the years. A number of the member clubs are owned by South Korean major conglomerates " chaebols". Those clubs have adopted local city names in an effort to integrate themselves more with the local communities. All other teams are owned by local governments. The K League champions, runners-up, and third-placed team gain entry to the AFC Champions League the following season, with the exception of Sangmu FC due to their unique status as a military team. If the winners of

Korean FA Cup The Korean FA Cup is a national football cup knockout competition of South Korea, held annually by the Korea Football Association (KFA). Before the FA Cup was established in 1996, two predecessor competitions named All Joseon Football Tournament ...

cannot qualify for the AFC Champions League or already qualified for it, fourth place also can participate. In the 2009 season,

Gangwon FC Gangwon FC (Hangul:강원 FC) is a South Korean football club. Based in Gangwon Province of South Korea, Gangwon FC joined the K League as its 15th club for the 2009 season. The club is sponsored by High1 Resort. History Foundation Gangw ...

joined the K League as its 15th member club. As such, the K League had one or more clubs in every provinces of South Korea. This was the first time in domestic South Korean professional sports history that there has been at least one club in each province.

Current clubs

Champions

List of champions

Titles by club

Broadcasters

South Korea

Outside South Korea

– one opening match only.

References

External links

{{Professional sports in South Korea 1 1983 establishments in South Korea

Korea Republic South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korean Peninsula and sharing a land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed by the Yellow Sea, while its eas ...

Summer association football leagues Sports leagues established in 1983 Professional sports leagues in South Korea