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K-league

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{| align=right border=1 cellpadding=3 cellspacing=0 width=250px style="margin: 0em 0em 5em 5em;font-size:smaller" |- |align=center| |- style=background:#efefef !K-League |- align=center |Image:Kleaguebadge.jpg K-League Logo |- style=background:#efefef !Founded |- align=center |1983 |- style=background:#efefef !Current member clubs |- align=center |14 |- style=background:#efefef !Current Champions |- align=center |Ulsan Hyundai Horang-i |- style=background:#efefef !League system |- align=center |Two sections of 13 matches each. Both section winners join the two teams with the best overall record in an end-of-season Championship playoff. |} The '''Korea Professional Soccer League''', more commonly known today as the '''K-League''' was founded in 1983 with five member clubs, and is the oldest professional football league in Asia. The five clubs were ''Hallelujah'', ''Daewoo'', ''POSCO'', ''Yukong Elephants'' and ''Kookmin Bank''. ''Hallelujah'' won the inaugural title, finishing one point ahead of ''Daewoo'' to lift the crown. Since 1983 the league has expanded from the initial five teams to fourteen teams for the 2006 season. Of the five initial clubs, only Daewoo, POSCO and Yukong Elephants remain in the K-League; Kookmin Bank FC dropped out of the league at the end of 1984, and Hallelujah Football Club Hallelujah followed the season after. Most of the member clubs in the league are owned by major Korean Chaebol ''Chaebols'', and the club names reflect that fact. Teams have adopted local city names in an effort to integrate themselves more with the local communities; for example, ''Daewoo'' evolved over the years into ''Daewoo Royals'', ''Busan Daewoo Royals'', ''Busan I'cons'' and latterly Busan I'Park ''Busan I'Park''. The ''Lucky Goldstar'' (Lucky Group LG) corporation caused a huge controversy at the end of 2003 when they made the decision to uproot their ''Anyang LG Cheetahs'' team from the Seoul satellite city of Anyang (South Korea) Anyang and move into the empty Seoul World Cup Stadium Seoul World Cup stadium, becoming FC Seoul ''FC Seoul''. __TOC__

Korean football league structure
At present there is only one professional league in Korea, the K-League, and it contains fourteen member clubs. It is a closed league with no promotion and relegation. Below the level of the K-League there is the K2 League, a closed semi-professional/amateur league with twelve members, established in 2003. Plans wereafoot for promotion and relegation between the K-League and K2 to be introduced in time for the 2007 season, with a rumoured K3 division sometime in the future.

The league season
The K-League season typically begins around March/April and runs to late November each year. The amount of games, clubs and the systems used have varied through the years, but for 2006 the league will continue to use the two-part season with championship play-offs at the end of the year, as previously used in 2004 and 2005. The fourteen member clubs play each other once in the first and second stages, giving a total of 26 matches. The winners of both stages advance to the championship play-offs, together with the two teams holding the best overall record from the combined stages. The winner of the play-off tournament (two semi-finals at a neutral venue followed up by a home and away final) will be declared league Champion. The K-League champions gain entry to the Asian Champions League the following season.

2005
Busan I'Park won the first stage of the K-League and guaranteed their slot in the end-of-season Championship playoff. The second stage was won by Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma, with Incheon United and Ulsan Hyundai Horang-i joining them in the playoffs. Ulsan defeated Seongnam 2-1 and Incheon defeated Busan 2-0, so the two victorious teams faced each other in the two-legged Championship final. Ulsan ran out 5-1 victors in the first match at the Incheon stadium and, though Incheon won the second leg 2-1, Ulsan emerged victorious 6-3 on aggregate to lift their second league championship.

K-League history
''Ilhwa Chunma'' are the most successful team in terms of championship victories, having lifted the title on no less than six occasions. The roll-call of champions is as follows (present-date names included where teams have changed names previously):

K-League champions
*ilhwa chunma Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma: 1993, 1994, 1995, 2001, 2002, 2003 *Suwon Samsung Bluewings: 1998, 1999, 2004 *Pohang Steelers: 1986, 1988, 1992 *Hallelujah Football Club Hallelujah: 1983 *Jeju United FC Jeju United: 1989 *Ulsan Hyundai Horang-i: 1996, 2005 *Busan I'Park: 1984, 1987, 1991, 1997 *Anyang LG Cheetahs FC Seoul: 1985, 1990, 2000

All-time K-League member clubs
There have been a total of 18 member clubs in the history of the K-League - those clubs are listed below with their current names (where applicable): *Hallelujah Football Club Hallelujah (1983-1985) *Busan I'Park Busan I'Park (1983-present) *Jeju United FC Jeju United (1983-present) *Pohang Steelers (1983-present) *Kookmin Bank FC Kookmin Bank (1983-1984) *FC Seoul (1984-present) *Hanil Bank (1984-1986) *Ulsan Hyundai Horang-i (1984-present) *Gwangju Sangmu Phoenix (1985; 2003-present) *ilhwa chunma Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma (1989-present) *Chonbuk Buffalo (1994) *Cheonbuk Hyundai Motors (1995-present) *Chunnam Dragons (1995-present) *Suwon Samsung Bluewings (1996-present) *Daejeon Citizen (1997-present) *Daegu FC (2003-present) *Incheon United (2004-present) *Gyeongnam FC (2006-present)

Famous players
*Ahn Jung-Hwan - formerly of Busan Icons Busan I'cons. *Lee Young-Pyo - formerly of FC Seoul Anyang LG Cheetahs. *Alpay Özalan - formerly of Incheon United. *Jamie Cureton - formerly of Busan Icons Busan I'cons. *Saša Drakulić - formerly of Ilhwa chunma Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma, Suwon Samsung Bluewings and Busan Icons Busan I'cons. *Hong Myung-Bo - formerly of Pohang Steelers. *Zoran Urumov - formerly of Busan Icons Busan I'cons and Suwon Samsung Bluewings. *Lee Chun-Soo - Ulsan Hyundai Horang-i *Lee Woon-Jae - Suwon Samsung Bluewings *Lee Dong-Guk - Pohang Steelers *Rade Bogdanovic - formerly of Pohang Steelers *Magno Alves - formerly of Chonbuk Hyundai Motors *João Soares da Mota Neto - formerly of Chunnam Dragons *Park Chu-Young - FC Seoul *Lee Eul-Yong - formerly of Bucheon SK *Josip Simic - formerly of Ulsan Hyundai Horang-i *Gabriel Popescu - formerly of Suwon Samsung Bluewings *Ahmad Elrich - formerly of Busan I'Park *Masakiyo Maezono - formerly of Incheon United *Jassim Abbas - formerly of Anyang LG Cheetahs FC Seoul *Adrian Neaga - Chunnam Dragons *Mato Neretljak - Suwon Samsung Bluewings

See also
*List of football clubs in South Korea *List of South Korean footballers *List of Korea-related topics *Sports league attendances

External links

- Official K-League website (Korean only)
- ROKfootball.com website (English only)
- K-League history and standings (English & French) Category:South Korean football competitions de:K-League fr:Championnat de Corée du Sud de football ko:K-리그 ja:韓国プロサッカーリーグ {| style="margin:0 auto" align=center id=toc |align=center| '''The K-League Korea Professional Soccer League''' |- |align=center| | Busan I'Park .html">Cheonbuk Hyundai Motors Chunnam Dragons | Daegu FC .html">Daejeon Citizen FC Seoul | Gwangju Sangmu Phoenix .html">Incheon United Jeju United FC | Pohang Steelers .html">Ilhwa Chunma Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma | Suwon Samsung Bluewings .html">Ulsan Hyundai Horang-i Gyeongnam FC | |} see K-League

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