K League 1
Liga Sepak bola Profesional Korea (K League) adalah satu-satunya liga sepak bola profesional di Korea Selatan.dalam sistem liga sepak bola korea selatan, ini adalah ajang paling bergengsi di korea selatan dengan 16 klub sebagai kontestan
K-League didirikan pada 1983 sebagai Liga Super Korea, dengan anggota lima klub. Lima klub pertama adalah Hallelujah FC, Yukong Kokkiri, POSCO Dolphins, Daewoo Royals, Kookmin Bank FC. Hallelujah FC memenangkan gelar perdananya, menyelesaikan satu poin di depan Daewoo FC untuk mengangkat mahkota.
Pada 1998, liga sepak bola Korea direformasi dan diganti namanya menjadi K-League. Sejak didirikan, liga telah berkembang dari 5 hingga 15 klub awal. Dari 5 klub pengukuhan, hanya Yukong Kokkiri, POSCO Dolphins, dan Daewoo Royals yang tersisa di K-League; Kookmin Bank FC keluar dari liga pada akhir 1984, dan Hallelujah FC mengikuti musim berikutnya.
Saat ini K-League adalah satu-satunya liga profesional di Korea. Ini berisi enam belas klub anggota.
Di bawah level K-League terdapat Liga Nasional, liga semi-profesional/amatir tertutup dengan lima belas klub, didirikan pada tahun 2003. Level ketiga sepakbola di Korea adalah Challengers League.
Saat ini, tidak ada sistem resmi promosi dan degradasi di antara ketiga liga. Namun, mulai tahun 2006, juara Liga Nasional telah memenuhi syarat untuk promosi ke Liga-K asalkan mereka telah memenuhi kriteria tertentu. Goyang Kookmin Bank dan Ulsan Mipo Dockyard, juara Liga Nasional pada tahun 2006 dan 2007, keduanya menolak kesempatan untuk naik ke K-League. Setelah
penolakan promosi K-League back-to-back, komite Liga Nasional memutuskan untuk menghentikan sistem promosi bersyarat sebelum musim 2008.
K Liga Klasik didirikan pada tahun 1983 sebagai Korea Super League, dengan lima klub anggota. Lima klub awal adalah Hallelujah FC, Yukong Gajah, POSCO Dolphins, Daewoo Royals, Kookmin Bank FC. Haleluya FC memenangkan gelar perdana, menyelesaikan satu poin dari Daewoo Royals untuk mengangkat mahkota.
Pada tahun 1998, liga sepak bola Korea direformasi dan berganti nama menjadi Liga K. (K League adalah ortografi resmi tahun 2012) Sejak pembentukannya, liga telah berkembang dari awal 5 sampai 16 klub. Dari 5 klub perdana, hanya Yukong Gajah, POSCO Dolphins, dan Daewoo Royals tetap di Liga K; Kookmin Bank FC keluar dari liga pada akhir tahun 1984, dan Hallelujah FC diikuti musim ini setelah.
Pada tahun 2013, K League memperkenalkan sistem divisi. Nama divisi pertama adalah K Liga klasik, nama divisi kedua adalah K Liga Challenge dan nama merek komprehensif K League.
Di bawah K Liga klasik, ada K Liga Challenge, dan di bawah K Liga Challenge, ada Liga Nasional, liga semi-profesional tertutup dengan sepuluh klub, didirikan pada tahun 2003. Tingkat keempat sepak bola di Korea adalah K3.
Tidak ada sistem resmi promosi dan degradasi. Namun, mulai tahun 2013, juara K Liga Challenge memenuhi syarat untuk promosi ke K League Classic, asalkan mereka telah memenuhi kriteria tertentu. Pada musim 2012, dua tim dari K Liga Klasik diturunkan ke K Liga Challenge, dan pada tahun 2013, dua tim akan diturunkan ke K Liga Challenge, dan 11 ditempatkan tim dari K League Classic.
The K-League season typically begins around March/April and runs to late November each year. The number of games, clubs and the systems used have varied through the years, but for 2009 the league will operate with a full stage regular season followed by a top six championship playoff system.
The sixteen member clubs play each other twice in the regular season giving a total of 30 matches. The top six sides at the end of the regular season will enter the championship playoffs, which decide final standings of the season among the six. In the first two matches, the third-placed team will face the sixth-placed team and the fourth-placed team will face the fifth-placed team, with the two winners then playing off for the right to face the second-placed team. The winner of that match will then progress to the two-legged championship playoff final where the first-placed side lie in wait, with the overall winner of the home and away series being crowned champions for 2009.
The K-League champions, runner-up and third place gain entry to the AFC Champions League the following season, with the exception of Sangmu, due to their unique status as an army team, and therefore non-professional.
A number of the member clubs are owned by major Korean "Chaebols", and the club names reflect that fact. Clubs 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".
Following the 2002 FIFA World Cup, leaders of the K-League had hoped to transfer South Korea's passion for its National Team to the domestic league. However, the K-League continued to flounder. Although a number of K-League clubs have relocated in the past, the "Lucky Goldstar" (LG) corporation caused a huge controversy at the end of 2003 when they made the decision to uproot their "Anyang LG Cheetahs" from the Seoul satellite city of Anyang and move into the empty Seoul World Cup stadium, becoming "FC Seoul". Then following the 2005 season SK announced it was moving the "Bucheon SK" FC to the island of Jeju, where they became "Jeju United".
In the 2009 season, Gangwon FC (Head Coach: Choi Sun-Ho, former Ulsan Hyundai Mipo Chosun head coach) joined the K-League as its 15th member club. As such, the K-League had one or more club in every Korean Province (Gyeonggi, Gyeongsang, Jeolla, Chungcheong, Gangwon, and Jeju). This is the first time in domestic Korean professional sports history that there has been at least two clubs in each Korean province.
On April 5, 2010, Gwangju City has announced a plan to establish a football club by end of 2010 dan to join the league from the 2011 season. On October 12, 2010, the club was approved to join the league as 16th member club.
On October 5, 2011, the league announced a plan to introduce a relegation system from 2012 season. A number of teams of the league will decreased to 12 teams from 2013 season. 4 teams will be relegated to next level league based on the standing of 2012 season. And, the league introduced a split system like Scottish Premier League from the 2012 season.
The league introduced the relegation system from the 2012 season. According to new relegation rule, 2 teams each will be relegated to lower level league based on the standing of 2012 and 2013 season, respectively (total: 4 teams). The league also changed the amount of entrance fee from 1 billion to 500 million Korean won.
"Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma" are the most successful team in terms of championship victories, having lifted the title on no less than seven occasions. The roll-call of champions is as follows (present-date names included where teams have changed names previously):At the inception of the K-League in 1983, only two Brazilian players made rosters. At the time, rules allowed each club to have three foreign players and that the three could also play simultaneously in a game. From the 1996 season, each team had five foreign players among whom three could play in a game at the same time. Moreover, from the 2000 season to the 2002 season, the limit on foreign players was expanded seven but only three could play in a game at the same time. The limit was lower to five in 2003, four in 2005, and three in 2007. From the 2009 season, the number of foreign players went back up to four per team, including a slot for a player from AFC countries.