The R League ( ko, R리그), also known as the Korean Professional Football Reserve League, is the league for

reserve team In sports, a reserve team is a team composed of players under contract to a club but who do not normally play in matches for the first team. Reserve teams often include back-up players from the first team, young players who need playing time to i ...

s of professional

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

clubs in

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 ...

. The league started in 1990 with five reserve teams of

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 ...

member clubs:

POSCO Atoms The Pohang Steelers (Hangul: 포항 스틸러스) are a South Korean professional football club based in Pohang, North Gyeongsang Province that compete in the K League 1, the top flight of South Korean football. The Steelers were founded on 1 A ...

Yukong Elephants Jeju United Football Club (Hangul: 제주 유나이티드) is a South Korean professional Association football, 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 bee ...

, Daewoo Royals, Hyundai Horang-i and Lucky-Goldstar Hwangso. Pohang Steelworks won the inaugural title, finishing two point ahead of

to lift the crown. But league was shortlived for only one year and reserve teams participated in semi-professional tournaments such as the National Football Championship. The competition was relaunched in 2000 with a dual league format. Nine reserve teams were divided into the Central League (currently Group League A) and the Southern League (currently Group League B). Each team played against the other teams in the same league for four times. For the 2009 season, the R League was renamed to its current name and thirteen of the fifteen

clubs are fielding reserve teams in the league along with the Korean Police, giving a total of fourteen participating clubs.

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 ...

and

Jeju United 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 ''Yukon ...

did not participate. As part of the plan to form the system of

promotion and relegation 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. ...

in the

starting from the 2013 season, the R League was planned to downsize after the 2012 season. The competition was ceased until 2015. Starting from the 2016 season,

clubs officially announced that they will resume the R League.

Champions

List of champions

Titles by club

K League's principle of official statistics is that final club succeeds to predecessor club's history & records.

Champions

List of champions

Titles by club

Awards

Most Valuable Player

Top goalscorer

Top assist provider

See also

References

External links