The Korea National League was a

South Korea 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 ...

n semi-professional football league held annually from 2003 to 2019. It was considered the second-highest 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 ...

before the

K League 2 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 ...

was launched in 2013, and the third-highest division since then.

History

The Korea National League was officially founded in the name of ''K2 League'' in 2003 to execute a plan to professionalize the

Korean National Semi-Professional Football League The Korean National Semi-professional Football League was contested between South Korean works teams and military teams from 1964 to 2002. It was the predecessor of the Korea National League which was founded in 2003. History After the introduct ...

. The participating clubs of the National League had to have their hometowns unlike in the Semi-professional League era. In 2006, the K2 League was rebranded as the Korea National League, and its champions were decided to promote to the K League. However, Goyang KB Kookmin Bank and

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, the champions of the 2006 and 2007 season respectively, judged that they couldn't derive benefit from their professionalization, and rejected their promotion. The Korea Football Association and the K League Federation eventually prepared another project to found the second-tier professional league which is irrelevant to the National League. At the end of 2019, the Korea National League was absorbed into the

K3 League The K3 League is the third tier of South Korean football league system, which was created from the rebranding of the Korea National League (2003–2019) and the former K3 League (2007–2019) into K3 League and K4 League in 2020. 16 teams are ...

All-time clubs

Champions

List of champions

Titles by club

Sponsorship

References

External links

Official website

Twitter
{{Football in South Korea 3 2003 establishments in South Korea Sports leagues established in 2003 Third level football leagues in Asia