South Korea’s K-League will introduce promotion and relegation in the coming season as part of an overhaul prompted by last year’s match-fixing scandal.
The changes are intended to make the league stronger than Japan’s J-League.
South Korean football clubs have been by far the most successful in Asian competitions in recent years but, in terms of organisation and professionalism, the league has fallen behind.
The problems were exposed last year when more than 60 players and coaches, past and present, were indicted in a massive match-fixing scandal.
Relegation will take place in 2012 for the first time as the league enters its 30th season.
“The match-fixing problem is a part of it but we want to take the league and the football system as a whole to the next level,” the K-League’s deputy general manager Kwon Sung-jin told Associated Press.
Of the 16 teams starting the season in March, two will be relegated to a newly organised second tier.
One will be Sangju Sangmu, after the Asian Football Confederation said the national army club – in which players can complete their two-year military service – should not be in the top tier.
Two more will be relegated the following season to reduce the top flight to 12 teams. Following that, there will be annual promotion and relegation between the two tiers.
The Asian Football Confederation had warned South Korea that the lack of relegation and promotion could result in a reduction in the country’s allocation of Asian Champions League places.
Still, the introduction of relegation had some Koreans worried, arguing that the nature of club ownership in the country – most teams are owned by a single major corporation – meant relegation could imperil club futures if corporations withdrew their support.
In another reform, the K-League has adopted the Scottish model for the season: after all teams play each other home and away, teams from the top half and bottom half will form separate groups that will play each other twice again. The winner of the top group is the champion, and the bottom teams in the lower group will be relegated.
Authorities are hopeful the changes will help boost attendances, which have plateaued around the 12,000 mark for a number of years.
