K League (
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 ...
: 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 Semi-professional Football League and the
National University Football League, but these were not professional leagues in which footballers could focus on only football. In 1979, however, 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 ...
(KFA)'s president Choi Soon-young planned to found a professional football league, and made South Korea's first professional football club
Hallelujah FC the next year. After the South Korean professional baseball league
KBO League was founded in 1982, the KFA was aware of crisis about the popularity of football. In 1983, it urgently made the ''Korean Super League'' with two professional clubs (
Hallelujah FC,
Yukong Elephants) and three semi-professional clubs (
POSCO Dolphins,
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 ...
) to professionalize South Korean football. Then, the Super League accomplished its purpose after existing clubs were also converted into professional clubs (POSCO Atoms, Daewoo Royals) and new professional clubs joined the league. In the early years, it also showed a
promotion system by giving qualifications to the Semi-professional League winners. (
Hanil Bank in
1984,