Decentralization policy in K League

This article is regarding the relocation of professional football clubs based in Seoul.

By 1995, there were three professional football clubs: Ilhwa Chunma (currently Seongnam FC), LG Cheetahs (currently FC Seoul) and Yukong Elephants (currently Jeju United) based in Seoul. KFA and Korea Professional Football League officials were impressed with the J-League's disapproval of using National Olympic Stadium (Tokyo), and were looking to implement a similar policy in the K-League. However, in 1995, Korea was bidding to host the 2002 FIFA World Cup. This warranted the construction of a soccer-specific stadium in Seoul.

While the KFA and Korea Professional Football League wanted to spread football fever to the provinces, this meant that the three clubs based in Seoul - Ilhwa Chunma, LG Cheetahs, and Yukong Elephants - needed to relocate. This did not go down well with the affected clubs, which did not want to recognize the K-League's decentralization policy. Eventually, it necessitated the Korean government issuing an eviction order to the three clubs.[1] However, the government did guarantee that if the clubs built a soccer-specific stadium in Seoul, they could have a Seoul franchise and return to the city. As a result of the eviction notice, the affected clubs were relocated to other cities.[2] As a result, Ilhwa Chunma became Cheonan Ilhwa Chunma based in Cheonan, 95 km away, LG Cheetahs became Anyang LG Cheetahs based in Anyang, a satellite city of Seoul, 21 km away and Yukong Elephants became Bucheon SK based in Bucheon, a satellite city of Seoul, 25 km away.[3]

By 2000, with Cheonan Ilhwa Chunma's move to Seongnam a satellite city of Seoul, 28 km away, the three affected clubs were located in the capital region of Seoul still forbidden from relocating to within the city's borders. However, at the conclusion of the 2002 FIFA World Cup many of the new stadiums sat empty. With five of the ten new stadiums filled with existing K League teams the KFA sought tenants for remaining five. Anyang LG Cheetahs were allowed to return to Seoul and the new Seoul World Cup Stadium at the cost of a small share of the construction fees (which turned out to be 15 billion wons, or at that time 15 million USD.[4]

The league expanded by three teams by 2004 to fill the vacant stadiums with the Korean military owned Gwangju Sangmu and municipally owned Daegu FC and Incheon United. Bucheon SK finally moved from the Seoul Capital Area to the last remaining vacant football stadium for FIFA World Cup, Jeju World Cup Stadium, in 2006.

References

  1. ↑ "일화 유공 LG, 내년에 서울연고 없어" (in Korean). Monthly Football. December 1995.
  2. ↑ K League (2013). Korea Professional Football 30 years history book. p. 178.
  3. ↑ "FIFA Classic Football Clubs - Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma". FIFA.com.
  4. ↑ "안양LG, '서울LG' 선언" (in Korean). Kyunghyang Newspaper. February 2, 2004.
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