K League decentralization policy

Last updated

The K League decentralization policy in 1995 was a policy of moving K League clubs located in Seoul to other regions. [1] [2] It was an effort by the Government of South Korea and the K League Federation to increase popularity of football nationwide before the 2002 FIFA World Cup for which they bid. [3] In accordance with it, the three K League clubs, Yukong Elephants, Ilhwa Chunma and LG Cheetahs, moved from Seoul to Bucheon, Cheonan and Anyang, respectively, in 1996. [4]

Contents

Overview

By 1995, there had been three professional football clubs based in Seoul: Ilhwa Chunma, LG Cheetahs and Yukong Elephants. K League Federation wanted to spread football popularity nationally and secure football-specific stadiums for bidding of 2002 FIFA World Cup. In order to achieve this goal, K League and Blue House [5] [6] forced all three clubs in Seoul to move to other cities. The intention was to compensate for the decreased number of home cities under the new system. [7]

This policy was not proceeded smoothly with the clubs affected by it, and brought resistances from them. [8] K League Federation announced that if the clubs don't accept the decision, they will be excluded from the league. [9] The federation also decided that one club among them could get the priority to return to Seoul, if it would build a football-specific stadium in Seoul. Then all three clubs agreed to move. [10] Once the plan was announced, [2] many city governments hoped to attract these clubs. [10]

Details

Yukong Elephants

At first, Yukong Elephants threatened K League that they would dissolve the club if they have to move out of Seoul. [11] However, they took Bucheon's offer to give a new 20,000-seater Bucheon Stadium and another football-specific stadium including two training fields. They decided to use Seoul Mokdong Stadium as their temporary home ground until the construction of Bucheon Stadium to be completed. They changed their name to Bucheon Yukong as a part of the policy on 4 January 1996. [10]

Ilhwa Chunma

Cheonan promised Ilhwa Chunma that they would change the Cheonan Oryong Stadium into a football-specific stadium by paying ₩1.2 billion and would build another sports complex. Ilhwa accepted the offer, moved to Cheonan, [12] and changed its name to Cheonan Ilhwa Chunma as a part of the policy on 29 March 1996. [10]

LG Cheetahs

LG Cheetahs was regarding to move to Changwon as well, but decided to move to Anyang due to the popularity of football in the region and the local characteristics. [13] They changed their name to Anyang LG Cheetahs as a part of the policy on 26 April 1996. [10]

Aftermath

K League started perfect "home and away system" from 1996 after all clubs got their own stadiums as a result. [7]

After the 2002 FIFA World Cup, Korea Football Association needed to pay Seoul Metropolitan Government ₩25 billion as their share of the construction of Seoul World Cup Stadium. [14] KFA wanted to find a new club in Seoul and let the club to pay the whole share, but it didn't happen. [15] Seoul Metropolitan Government understood that potential investment on a new Seoul club had not made due to the amount of the share, they agreed to cut ₩10 billion in the way of sponsoring the new team with the same amount of money. [16] Also, KFA agreed to pay ₩10 billion of their share to reduce the burden to a new Seoul club, leaving only ₩5 billion to pay. [16]

In the meantime, Anyang LG Cheetahs declared their interest in moving to Seoul and Seoul Metropolitan Government welcomed it, though KFA prioritized the foundation of a new club. [17] But many candidate companies (including KT Corporation and Kumho Asiana Group), which received proposal from KFA and K League, refused to found a new Seoul-based club.[ citation needed ] On 6 February 2004, K League Federation officially allowed the existing K League club's move to Seoul and sent relocation proposal to all K League clubs. [18] KFA declared that if an existing club wants to move to Seoul, they need to pay ₩15 billion, due to the KFA's ₩10 billion offer was only under the condition of foundation of a new club. [19] A few days later, however, KFA cut the share to pay to a half, ₩7.5 billion, with a prospect of a new Seoul club in future to pay the other half. [20]

Busan I'Cons also had declared their interest in being a new Seoul club, [21] but later retreated their interest. Anyang LG Cheetahs finally returned to Seoul on 10 March 2004. [22]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">K League 1</span> Top division in South Korean football

The K League 1 is the men's top professional football division of the South Korean football league system. The league is contested by twelve clubs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Seongnam FC</span> South Korean professional association football club

Seongnam FC is a South Korean professional football club based in Seongnam that competes in the K League 2, the second tier of South Korean football. Founded in 1989 as Ilhwa Chunma Football Club, the club has won seven national league titles, three FA Cups, three League Cups, and two AFC Champions League titles. Seongnam also placed fifth in the IFFHS Asian Clubs of the 20th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">FC Seoul</span> South Korean football club

FC Seoul is a South Korean professional football club based in Seoul that competes in the K League 1, the top flight of South Korean football. The club is owned by GS Sports, a subsidiary of GS Group. Since 2004, FC Seoul have played its home games at the Seoul World Cup Stadium in Seoul's Mapo District.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jeju United FC</span> South Korean football club

Jeju United Football Club is a South Korean professional football club based in Jeju Province that competes in the K League 1, the top division in South Korea. In the past, the club has been known as the Yukong Elephants and Bucheon SK.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Daejeon Hana Citizen</span> Football club

Daejeon Hana Citizen Football Club is a South Korean professional football team based in Daejeon that competes in the K League 1, the top tier of South Korean football. At the time of its foundation in 1997, Daejeon Citizen was the first community club in South Korea, not belonging to any company. The club first entered the K League for the 1997 season, finishing in seventh place. In spite of a limited budget, Daejeon won the 2001 Korean FA Cup. It has not achieved sustained success in the K League, historically occupying the middle and lower reaches of the standings each season. At the end of the 2013 season, Daejeon was relegated to the K League Challenge, the second-tier league.

The 1996 Korean FA Cup was the first edition of the Korean FA Cup.

The 1997 Korean FA Cup was the second edition of the Korean FA Cup.

The 1998 Korean FA Cup, known as the 1998 Sambo Change Up FA Cup, was the third edition of the Korean FA Cup.

1999 Korean FA Cup, known as the 1999 Sambo Computer FA Cup, was the fourth edition of the Korean FA Cup.

2000 Korean FA Cup, known as the 2000 Seoul Bank FA Cup, was the fifth edition of the Korean FA Cup. It was the first competition to give high school teams qualifications, and two high schools participated.

The 2001 Korean FA Cup, known as the 2001 Seoul Bank FA Cup, was the sixth edition of the Korean FA Cup.

The 2002 Korean FA Cup, known as the 2002 Hana-Seoul Bank FA Cup, was the seventh edition of the Korean FA Cup.

The 1996 Korean Professional Football League was the 14th season of K League since its establishment in 1983. South Korean government and the Korean Professional Football Federation introduced a decentralization policy to proliferate the popularity of football nationally in preparation for the 2002 FIFA World Cup, which they wanted to host, so some clubs located in the capital Seoul moved to other cities according to the new policy in this season.

The 2000 Korean Professional Football Reserve League was the second season of the R League. Anyang LG Cheetahs won their first national title after defeating Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma in the Championship final.

Football is one of the most popular sports, both in terms of participants and spectators, in Seoul. It hosted several of South Korea's leading football clubs and has the biggest football stadium in the country, the Seoul World Cup Stadium.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1996–2005 Puchon Yukong / Bucheon SK seasons</span>

At the end of 1995 the side moved from the Dongdaemun Stadium in Seoul to the Mokdong Stadium on the western edge of Seoul, as part of K-League's decentralization policy.

This article documents the history of FC Seoul, a Korean association football club based in Seoul. For a general overview of the club, see FC Seoul.

K League is South Korea's professional football league. It includes the first division K League 1 and the second division K League 2.

References

  1. K League 30th Anniversary. Seoul, South Korea: K League. 2013. p. 307. ISBN   978-89-963178-4-5.
  2. 1 2 Lee, Young Hoon; Fort, Rodney (31 October 2014). "The Sports Business in The Pacific Rim: Economics and Policy". ISBN   9783319100371.
  3. 스카이박스 - 축구와 야구의 차이, 그리고 연고의식 (in Korean). XSPORTS NEWS. 16 March 2009.
  4. 서울 연고 이랜드프로축구단 출범…FC서울과 '투톱' (in Korean). Korea Economic Daily. 1 May 2014.
  5. 일화 유공 LG, 내년에 서울연고 없어 (in Korean). Monthly Football. December 1995.
  6. Lee, Young-kyu (6 November 1995). 서울 한지붕 세가족 일화 LG 유공 "내년엔 모두 서울 떠난다"[Seoul Family Ilhwa, LG, Yukong "All Leaving Seoul Next Year"]. Sports Seoul (in Korean). p. 6.
  7. 1 2 Lee, Young-hoon (2014). The Sports Business in The Pacific Rim: Economics and Policy. Springer. pp. 63–64. ISBN   9783319100371.
  8. 일화·LG·유공"서울 포기못해" [Ilhwa, LG, Yukong,"Can't give up Seoul"]. The Hankyoreh. 13 December 1995. Retrieved 28 February 2017.
  9. "프로축구 지역연고 먼길인가" (in Korean). The Hankyoreh. 9 November 1995.
  10. 1 2 3 4 5 K League 30th Anniversary. Seoul, South Korea: K League. 2013. p. 178. ISBN   978-89-963178-4-5.
  11. 줏대없는 프로연맹 이사회 (in Korean). Sport Seoul. 22 October 1995.
  12. "FIFA Classic Football Clubs - Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma". FIFA.com. Archived from the original on 5 March 2016.
  13. 프로축구 안양LG에 새둥지 (in Korean). The Dong-a Ilbo.
  14. 서울 프로축구팀 창단의 조건 (in Korean). Retrieved 2 March 2017.
  15. [프로축구]서울FC가 보고 싶다 (in Korean). Retrieved 3 March 2017.
  16. 1 2 <프로축구 서울연고팀 창단 '급물살'> (in Korean). Retrieved 3 March 2017.
  17. [프로축구]해법 못찾는 서울축구팀 (in Korean). Retrieved 3 March 2017.
  18. 프로축구 지방구단 서울입성 길열렸다 (in Korean). Retrieved 3 March 2017.
  19. 축구협, 안양 엘지 서울입성 '태클' (in Korean). Retrieved 3 March 2017.
  20. 프로축구연맹 "서울입성 75억만 내라" (in Korean). Retrieved 3 March 2017.
  21. 부산 아이콘스도 서울로 연고 이전 신청 (in Korean). Retrieved 3 March 2017.
  22. 프로축구 부산, 연고지 잔류..LG 서울 입성 (in Korean). Retrieved 3 March 2017.