Intro: It’s that time of year, listeners! The smell of damp grass, the smell of ramyeon coming from the stadium and the *whistle sound* the sound of miscalled fouls *whistle sound* How is that a foul?! Are you blind, 심판님?! For many people it’s a happy time of year because it’s the start of football season in South Korea. For now, football starts in March, but that may change next season. Let’s go over all the important changes and talk about the teams because there were a lot of things that went down after the final game.
Where is the WK-League schedule?
Uh, KWFF, we have a problem here? Hello, KWFF? I don’t think anyone’s home. So the main problem I’m having with the KWFF is that they haven’t released the WK-league schedule as of Wednesday. I…think they’re still making it? Last season the league started March 20th, so I’m hoping they get it released soon. There hasn’t been much on the league’s instagram page. I can’t really give a good preview if I don’t know when the best games are gonna be. Hell, the semi-pro divisions have their schedules up now on JoinKFA so I’m not sure what the delay is here. I’ve heard rumors the season will start April 4th. It’s not a Women’s world cup year. Also in related news, Changnyeong WFC moved to Gangjin and became the Gangjin Swans! Jeonnam finally gets a women’s team! Now do they have a coach? I heard Kwon Yongin from Gwangyang was supposed to be managing but declined? Breaking news! Gangin has hired Go Hyunho away from Korea University women’s team as team manager! This literally hit my email as I started recording. With the leadership settled and roster mostly determined, the team can start making their playbook. It’s kinda important to have a playbook, right? *joke sting*
Also of note for the women’s league is Suwon playing Wuhan in the Women’s Asian Champions league cup on March 29th. Suwon won the WK-league in 24 so they’re in the 25 and 26 competition. They’ll be without national team captain Cho Sohyun who moved to Canada to play for the Halifax Red Tide this season. Suwon didn’t pick any players in the draft so they will have to hope their free agent signings like Ji Soyeon will get them back into contention.
Next week is the start of the Women’s AFC cup in Australia which is part of next year’s World Cup so the league might start in April to allow for players to play for the national team. The U-20 team will also be playing in their age group World Cup this April, and the national team will also play in the FIFA series. The W Korea Cup which will feature women's college teams playing against WK League clubs, will also be launched for the first time this year. It’ll be a busy year for the Women’s K-League, assuming they’ve got the ticket seller and broadcast rights sorted along with the schedule before the start of the season. Whenever that will be.
Semi-pro changes
There is a new championship cup system in the semi-pro league! Starting this year, K3 and K4 teams will play against each other to win the tournament under a similar setup as the Korea Cup, which they will also be participating in. This 5 round cup will start May 5th and continue until the final in September. So if a team plays well, they’re looking at 5 extra games, though they are interspersed through the middle of the season. A team that also wins Korea Cup games would also get extra matches between higher ranked teams as well. I bet some teams are gonna be tired of footie by the time the summer splashes on us *joke sting* Oh coach…please no more…my feet hurt. Can’t we just tank like Memphis? *joke sting*
Also of note is the change in promotion and relegation between the pro and the semi-pro leagues. The KFA overhauled everything so there can be promotion all the way up from K4 under certain circumstances. If a K3 team earns a K2 play license before it wins the league title, then it can play an away match against the bottom team of K2 to decide which team will be in the pros next season. Teams have until tomorrow to get in their applications, but there are ways to skip ahead like a few teams did last year. If a team is in a city of more than 500 thousand or is established by a top 200 company, then they can jump right into K2. For the teams doing it the organic way, the league will relax some provisions like having all of the youth teams until fully established at the pro league. As of right now, K3 teams need one youth team, which I think is U15 if I recall correctly. The pros need all 4 of the youth teams which is no surprise. The promotion system for K4 also got overhauled. Some teams that were winning in previous seasons deliberately tanked so they wouldn’t join the K3 because they didn’t have the budget or infrastructure for that league. To get around that, K4 teams that wish to be promoted must declare by June 30th. If an interested team wins the league, they are automatically promoted. If they get second place, they will play the bottom team of K3 in a promotion playoff. If they wind up in last place, after saying they can play in the higher league, then they get laughed out of football forever *joke sting*. You gotta walk the walk if you wanna talk the talk. *joke sting*. This year K4 has 5 new teams and lost Danjin to promotion, so I see a lot of bad games there in the future but who knows? Maybe one of them will surprise us?
K league looks
In the pro league, we’ve got a few storylines to consider. First up is the looming World Cup. The national team has some K-League players, but it is heavier on talent from overseas. And they have many, many injuries. Anyway the league will be on break for all of June and most of July, which means we probably won’t get another splish-splash game *joke sting*. Those are always so hilarious to watch.
First up is the rise of Bucheon to K1. They got promoted while Daegu and Suwon both got sent down, leaving Suwon without a top tier team *whip sound* OW men’s top tier team! Bucheon is bringing 5 Brazilians and a Colombian, but lost midfielder Jang Si Hyeong to Ulsan. I think they could be competitive this year, but their first match is against Jeonbuk so don’t read too much from it. Unless they get squashed 9 nil or something like that. That would be a jumping, not a real game *joke sting*.
Gwangju FC is also going through change since Coach Lee went back to K2 to coach the Bluewings. Coaching the firebirds…well I think that’s their mascot, will be difficult for coach Jungkyu Lee from E-Land since they are on a transfer ban until the summer. But he is familiar with the team since he was an assistant under Jung-kyo a few years ago. There is a chance they’ll avoid relegation but they will need to push after the summer to stay out of the deadzone. In an interview, the new coach discussed their training regimen using videos of overseas games to give a better understanding of what they want players to do on the field. Here’s hoping it plays out for them.
Jeonbuk Hyundai also has a new manager since Gus Poyret left last season. Jeong Jeong-yong takes the reins and so far so good with a commanding 2 nil win over Daejeon in the Super cup last weekend. However they’ve had around 30 transfers so in some ways it’ll resemble a brand new team. But they got Bruno Mota back from Anyang and two players returned from the military team, so they’re getting younger in some ways.
Speaking of the military team, this is their last year in Gimcheon! They are moving since Gimcheon city might be starting their own team. Not sure where yet, but they also have a new manager in Joo Seung-jin who used to coach Daegu FC *boooo* Oh come on! Daegu being ass wasn’t all his fault! But yeah, because of the relegation changes, Sangmu’s position at the end of year could lead to as many as 4 K2 teams getting promoted. So if you’re a K2 fan, you’d better keep an eye out on Sangmu. If you’re in Gimcheon, go to a game! It might be your last chance.
As far as a clear favorite to win it all, I haven’t seen one. Yeah Jeonbuk retooled and they looked good against Daejeon, but how much is that because of the new acquisitions versus Daejeon weakening? Ross Davis at K League Weekly sub-stack also doesn’t believe in a clear favorite, but he had Daejeon 2 and Jeonbuk 1. Shall we trust the experts? I’m not an expert on football so don’t ask me? Y’all have seen my betting record! *joke sting*
transition music
Talking about K2 is going to be difficult. There are 17 teams this year with Gimhae FC 2008, Yongin FC, and Paju Frontier joining the league. Paju Frontier… frontier of what? Is this suggesting manifest destiny in the untamed lands north? Anyway, this is a good opportunity for the best 3 to 4 teams to take advantage of the new teams to jump into K1. Suwon, heck both Suwon teams are well-positioned to get promoted. My other picks for promotion are Busan and Jeonnam. I’m not sold on Seongnam FC’s rebuild and I’m not sold on E-Land being good since they changed managers. Daegu could be good, but I think they need another year of seasoning before sniffing promotion again. At any rate, if any of the 3 new teams and Hwaseong are anywhere near competitive, the good K2 teams will not get a cakewalk to the top tier. They shouldn’t expect a cakewalk anyway! No easy points!
Problems with the league
The KFA has a lot of issues holding it back. A recent article by Lee Geun-seung, MK Sports Reporter went over a few of them. The key problem he feels stems from this line quote The soccer community does not even consider consumers unquote. By community, he means the KFA and the soccer leagues. Many of the pro and amateur teams are sponsored by cities and making money from ticket sales is not a priority for them. For the company owned teams, it doesn’t seem to be a big priority either but they are the teams that win the cups and titles. The writer also mentioned that the teams aren’t profitable even for big-spenders due to the profit system being uncertain. Because the team budget is set by the city owner or company, they don’t have to worry about pleasing fans to earn money through ticket sales. This system’s been in place since the dictatorship days and there’s no incentive to change. But there are negative issues, like shrinking local budgets and star players going overseas and avoiding the K-League system entirely. The league is also working on ways to improve referees, considering the numerous problems last season and the way some sports journalists praised the Chinese league’s transparency. This led to a conference on February 4th to discuss the way to improve the referee system but there didn’t seem to be a lot of confidence in their remarks. The writer said there was some sympathy for fans getting angry over wrong decisions, but that happens every game it seems. The writer also brought up that because of OTT services and streaming plans, fans can watch other pro leagues per month for less than the cost of a box of chicken. They can certainly watch teams with better field conditions as well. The teams have passed the blame onto the cities, the stadium owners, and so on. But fundamentally, it’s a team effort. That’s why the writer often hears confusion from others as to whether the K-League is an actual pro league or more of an amateur slash semi-pro league with more pay. And yeah, it’s painful for the KFA to hear but it’s time they ran things more professionally. You can hear it in the voice of players like Lingaard who wanted more EPL players to come here but they didn’t given the field conditions and agent problems and sketchy refs. The key part the league needs to realize is that this current bump in fan support will fade quickly if they don’t make improvements across the board. Perhaps that is the real game that needs to be won.
Worst Persons
We got some breaking news and boy is it a shocker! A shoo in for the Plutonium award too! Police are investigating allegations that an athletic team coach at a middle school in North Chungcheong took nude photos of a student and shared the images according to reports in the Joongang Daily. The coach is suspected of using his phone to take a nude image of a male student under the coach’s supervision at a lodging facility in late 2025 and circulating the image in a group chat. The student reportedly has an intellectual disability and has been staying at the coach’s home as part of a training arrangement. The coach resigned from the school after the allegations surfaced. (pause for 2 seconds) I’m starting to wonder something, dear listeners. Are coaches becoming the next cursed career, along with taxi drivers? Because shit like this, hurting kids like this, is putting the career into the same tier as the serial killer taxi drivers from 20 years ago. It just seems like for every 2 good coach stories, you get one story like this.
GOTW
Football returns with a derby! On Saturday at 2pm we got Incheon hosting FC Seoul. Will Incheon prove it truly belongs in the top tier? Now’s the time to shine. Also at 2pm is Gimhae hosting Ansan for the first time. Will Gimhae be any good? Or is it Ansan’s time to shine? Questions will be answered this Saturday! If you’re a national basketball fan, better tune in on Sunday March 1st for the samiljeol independence movement day game of Korea vs Japan in Okinawa! Coach Nicolas Majuls has a new intense training regiment that the players seem to like and it has led to 2 wins over China so far. But some of his key players are injured and replaced with rookies like Eddy Daniel of the Knights. He understands the rivalry, so he gets a chance to write some basketball history on Sunday.
Next week we get some baseball action, starting with the NC Dinos playing against the San Diego Padres at 6AM on Sunday then 4AM on Monday and Wednesday. If you’re an early bird or in the western hemisphere, you’re in luck! If you’re in Korea and still want baseball, don’t fret because we get Kia games Sun and Monday at 1pm, then Thursday and Fri at the same time. Games will be on SOOP. And the World Baseball Classic kicks off next week, with Korea at Japan 6pm on Saturday the 6th. Bet that’ll be fun!
Starting 10AM on March 3rd, registration opens for the Team K-League 10k run in Seoul on Saturday March 28th. Registration ends March 12th at 5pm on a first-come, first-served basis. Participants are expected to run in their own K League uniforms, but those without a uniform can wear the limited-edition event T-shirt. If you want more details, take a look at the link in my show notes. Personally, I think it’s great for the league but there are soooo many foot races these days, especially in the Seoul area, I believe there will be more irritated locals than amused ones.
Ending
Thank you for tuning in today. We hope you learned something about Korean Sports because if you didn’t, you set the sleep timer too soon *joke sting*. Pass this pod on to anyone interested in Korean sports and especially rookies because trust me they need every ounce of help we can pour on them. If you don’t believe me, spend 5 minutes on Living in Korea subreddit *Joke sting*. If you wish to read along or contact the show, visit our website at hwatingsportspodcast dot com or our Facebook page and everything you need is right there. Give our podcast 5 stars if you have time. Music notes like the opening song thanks to DumiAFava. You can reach him on Instagram @daf_daffy247. Cover art thanks to our cycling expert James! A shoutout to our listeners in Kampala Uganda, home of the Maroons FC AKA Prison FC because it’s owned by the prison system! Does that mean when the team loses, the players get stuck in solitary after the game? I know some fans would want to do that here *joke sting*! We will be back on March 13th with baseball coverage! Until next time, wonderful listeners!
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Notes
Cho Sohyun to Halifax- wkleague news
한국여자축구연맹 (@thekwff) • Instagram photos and videos
Ji-is-back-Wkleague news
Gimcheon Sangmu appoints Joo Seung-jin as new manager - CHOSUNBIZ
Each team in the K-League is already stepping up preparations for the 2026 season. - MK
FIFA announces line-up for expanded FIFA Series 2026™
The K-League (1·2) is not an unemployed league or amateur. It's a professional sport.- MK
Put on your kit, get fit: K League to host 10K run
Swans-appoint-go-hyunho/-WKleague News