The K3 League is the third-highest division in 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 South Korea, Korean Football (soccer), football clubs. The highest level of football in South Korea is the ...

. It was run as an amateur league until 2019, but was relaunched as a semi-professional league after absorbing the

Korea National League The Korea National League () was a South Korean semi-professional football league held annually from 2003 to 2019. It was considered the second-highest division of the South Korean football league system before the K League 2 was launched in 2013 ...

in 2020. It is currently contested by 15 clubs.

History

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 introduc ...

was founded in 1964 and lasted until it was replaced by the

in 2003. The National League (K2 League) was established to introduce the

promotion and relegation Promotion and relegation is used by sports leagues as a process where teams can move up and down among divisions in a league system, based on their performance over a season. Leagues that use promotion and relegation systems are sometimes call ...

system between semi-professional clubs and

K League K League () is South Korea's professional football league. It includes the first division K League 1 and the second division K League 2. Clubs competing in the K League have won a record total of twelve AFC Champions League Elite, AFC Champions ...

clubs. However, National League clubs which formed independent federation were reluctant to invest for their professionalization, and the plan was miscarried due to their refusal. 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 ...

(KFA) continued its plan to complete the

. The KFA made its amateur league

K3 League The K3 League is the third-highest division in the South Korean football league system. It was run as an amateur league until 2019, but was relaunched as a semi-professional league after absorbing the Korea National League in 2020. It is cur ...

in 2007, and introduced promotion and relegation in the amateur K3 League after dividing it into two divisions K3 League Advanced and K3 League Basic in 2017. Meanwhile, the number of National League clubs gradually decreased, while some of them joined second-tier professional league

K League 2 The K League 2 () 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 promotion and relegation system with K League 1. History In 2011, the or ...

(K League Challenge) or were dissolved due to financial problems. The K3 League Advanced and K3 League Basic were relaunched as semi-professional leagues under the name of K3 League and

K4 League The K4 League is the fourth-highest division in the South Korean football league system. It is regarded as the successor to the K3 League Basic, the second division of K3 League (2007–2019), amateur K3 League founded in 2017. Since 2021, Kore ...

respectively, and the National League was merged into the newly-developed K3 League. At present, there is promotion and relegation between the K3 League and K4 League, but clubs cannot be promoted from K3 to the K League 2. However, the KFA has announced plans to unify the K League system, meaning that from the 2027 season onwards, there will be promotion and relegation between the K3 League and K League 2.

Competition format

All participating clubs play

home and away season In an organized sports league, a typical season is the portion of one year in which regulated games of the sport are in session: for example, in Major League Baseball the season lasts approximately from the last week of March to the last week of S ...

in the K3 League. The championship playoffs were contested by top four clubs of the regular season in 2020 and 2021, but were not held in 2022 onwards. The promotion and relegation system exists between the K3 League and the

, although the number of promoted team(s) and relegated team(s) is different every season.

Clubs

Current clubs

Former clubs

The following clubs are not in the K3 League as of the 2025 season.

Champions

Champions by season

Performance by club

References

External links

Official website
at KFA {{Football in South Korea 2020 establishments in South Korea 3 Sports leagues established in 2020 Third-level football leagues in Asia Professional sports leagues in South Korea