Gwangju in K League 1: last, with little hope of catching up.
Dragons in K League 2: second-to-last with just one point ahead of Gimhae in last place, but for how long?
Mokpo in K3 League: second-to-last, only kept from the bottom by Jeonbuk's reserve team.
Gangjin in WK League: similar to Gwangju, last with little hope of getting off the bottom anytime soon.
We came across a Threads post about how reliant the citizen clubs are on taxpayer money. The short story is that none of the citizen clubs will be able to function without their 130 billion KRW annually subsities.
The post also mentioned that Gimpo FC received 12 million and managed to embezzle 8 million of that. The culprits were the mayor (the club owner), the club CEO, and the club general manager. I'm not clear on which is which, but the three have very strong personal connections: a former lawmaker's aide, younger brother, and the brother's friend.
Back searching with AI, looking for articles, it also came up with this summary:
Reference Articles:
Regarding tragic deaths connected to Gimpo City/Gimpo FC:
Reference Articles:
This song from ELand was posted on KLeague Supporting
It's been a while since I posted about my match day experiences, but that does not mean I was not writing about them. Here are my last three posts:
Regarding old acquaintances, missing SD cards, and a return of the Sexy Beasts, as Seoul start a long run of home matches, hoping to strengthen their position in the league.
Suwon comes to town to beat on Seoul, twice in just over a week, while a mysterious voice shouts encouragement from the woods.
A day in which I go from content to annoyed to happy to frustrated, while a dog enjoys his life without a care in the world.
I got into writing primarily with a fountain pen after buying a KRW 1000 pen at the Korean store, Diaso. The pen includes two cartridges. At current conversion rates, that is USD 0.67.
Later I bought other "beginner" pens, like the Preppy and Kakuno, and a lightweight Parker for carrying around. The dirt-cheap one is kind of ugly, and I have no idea how long it will last, but unless you are nitpicking, it holds up. For the price, it blows the Preppy out of the ink, and for just scratching notes on paper, it is as good as anything else.
When I want to write carefully, I prefer the smooth Kakuno Medium, but the Cheapy feel almost as smooth, and for my diary I prefer the pencil-like Parker.
I also bought a KRW 3000 pen that came with two nib sizes, two cartridges, AND a converter. It has flow issues, though. The one nib hardly flowed, and the other was just short of leaking. But, conveniently, the converter works on the cheap pen as well.
I'm guessing these cheap pens are inconsistent, and other supposedly the same pens might not be as nice, but for that price you can buy three, keep the one you like most, and use the cartridges from the ones you give/throw away.
It's been a while since I mentioned my "adventure" of attending as many of Seoul City Hall Amazones matches as I can manage during the 2026 season.
In this longer-than-usual post, Seoul gets stomped at home, twice, by the same team.
The last undefeated team in the paid leagues has finally tasted defeat.
This afternoon, Siheung lost 0-2 at home to Busan Transportation Company
I don't see any other recent posts about this, so I thought I'd throw it in here.
According to this article, sports specialty venture capital APEX Capital signed a contract to invest up to 30 million C$30M in NSL.
Two separate youth teams, dressed in the Seoul City Hall colours, attended the last two home matches. I overheard one team saying that they are from a middle school based in Nowon. The team at the last match was clearly older, so I assumed they were high school students.
I went digging, and it turns out that the girls are from Dongsan Information Industry High School, apparently a powerhouse in Korean high school football. Ji So-Yeon, who was playing for Suwon that evening, played for them.
It made me wonder if Seoul has an elementary school team, and indeed they do. All three teams are based in the Northeast of Seoul
This pipeline is a luxury that no other teams have. Most of the other youth teams are just agreements with local schools which may change from season to season.
* There are calls to make the league professional, and with it will come the requirement to have dedicated youth teams. K League 1 teams are required to have all three youth teams, but I doubt they will require the WK League to have all three.
I was talking to an acquaintance at the Seoul WK League match last night. He is an Incheon United fan, so I asked if he was coming to the match against FC Seoul this weekend. He said he was, and I said I might come, even if only to listen.
He then said that Seoul songs are bad and unoriginal (half the songs in Korea are copies) and that Seoul has no history.
Pretty rich for someone supporting a team that was formed only a year before Seoul relocated to the World Cup Stadium. 😜
He is otherwise a very nice guy, and there might be some misunderstandings because of language. I'm pretty used to people sh*ing on FC Seoul for existing, and me for being a supporter of the worst club in the country. But this sort of thing is why Seoul fans have an unexpected dislike for Incheon fans.
In the meantime on the field, Suwon was making Seoul look like fools for most of the match. It felt like it would never end, and the next match is against Suwon again next week. 😶
Suwon and Hwacheon are running away with things, and they face each other next Wednesday. This is the only match for the evening and might be worth watching for those with just a passing interest and nothing to do. Good thing for Seoul is that it might leave Suwon with some really tired legs.
The mods discussed it, and we feel that the number of national team-related posts is getting out of hand. We are specifically referring to the posts that add nothing or ask questions that can't be answered.
None of us like removing or rejecting posts, but if we see posts that amount to sh*tposting or just repeating what's already been said, we might well remove them.
K League 1 and K League 2 are back this coming weekend, the K3/4 League and WK League never went anywhere, and the various junior leagues developing the future Korean talent are still chugging along. We would love new or irregular visitors to join us in supporting these leagues and teams.
You are, of course, welcome to ask more specific questions, but here is some information to help you get started:
Where To Watch
Maybe the most common question is "Where can I watch matches?" The information is in the main wiki, but we copied it over to a separate page to make it easier click me
Main Wiki
All the information we think might be useful is right here. It will answer questions like "How do I get tickets?" and "Is it possible to buy a uniform?" click me
The semi-professional men's leagues and the women's league didn't halt for the World Cup period and are still rolling along. We just passed the halfway mark in all three leagues, and this is where we stand.
All 5 teams that applied for professional licenses failed. There will be no team leaving the K3 league for bigger things at the end of this season.
Shiheong still have not tasted defeat this season. I dont know what exactly is considered the "start" of the season, but after depending on you to calculate it, they may or may not have had the best start to the season ever. It fluctuates with the 2020 Gimhae team. However, now, after 16 matches, they have the highest number of points in the history of the current K3 League iteration.
At the other end Mokpo is not doing much better than last season, but at least they are not in any danger of being relegated at this point. That "honour" does to Jeonbu N. However, both teams have only 1 win so far this season
TLDR: Siheung is on fire this season. Jeonbuk N suck.
The new teams are having mixed results. At the bottom, Seosan is just trying to get off the bottom of the table, while at the top, Jincheon is chasing Jinju.
Jinju recently experienced its first loss of the season, but that is still the only one. After 15 matches, they are 9 points ahead of Jincheon, who themselves are 7 points ahead of the next team. I'd like to say Jinju looks like a guaranteed champion, but at one point, Namyangju and Pyeongchang were doing the same last season, and Dangjin went on to take the title along with automatic promotion.
TLDR: Jinju is on fire. Seosan is suffering from shell shock.
Gangjin started their season well, but are starting to look like Changnyeong last season. They have earned just one point from their last 8 matches. The difference between the team this season and last season is their fighting spirit. This team has not given up yet.
Gyeongju have recovered from their terrible start, and Seoul is cycling between wins and losses. Their league movement of the two teams has been in opposite directions, but the mid-table is congested, and a single win can propel either team up a few places.
Hwacheon and Suwon are on the rampage right now. Suwon managed to score 16 goals in just three matches, and Hwacheon are on a 6-game win streak.
For what it's worth, the league's All-Star match, scheduled for 4 July has been cancelled. Fixture congestion and the cost involved were given as reasons
TLDR: Suwon and Hwacheon are running away with the league.
Hong Myung-bo appointment had national team supporters everywhere up in arms, but they were unable to get 50,000 signatures to bring the matter to the national assembly. Clearly, a small group was loud, but the general public didn't care.
When the World Cup started, all the casual viewers came out of the woodwork, and we were surprised and upset when Korea was not the world force they had imagined the country to be.
Suddenly, people with just a passing interest in football are angry and upset at the coach, to the point where he is being refused entry into establishments he will never go to anyway. He is even receiving death threats from foreign nationals.
Now, after how many years of suspicious activity in the KFA, does the government want to launch an investigation? Only AFTER the country was "embarrassed" by grown men not playing a ball game well enough.
Granted, there were other calls for investigating the KFA over the last couple of years, but they felt rather half-hearted, so this is what you get. What is the point of government officials getting angry AFTER they didn't do what needed to be done? If it was important, maybe they who apologise about not doing better when they had the chance?
I'm sure plenty of people will be happy to hear that Chung Mong-gyu said he would step down as president of the KFA, and that Hong Myung-bo handed in his resignation.
None of the five teams that applied for professional licences was granted said licences.
* Siheung doesn't have a suitable stadium.
* Daejeon Korail doesn't have a stadium at all.
* Mokpo need independent incorporation. (I don't see how this is an issue, since they are now part of the Gwangju Jollanam supercity thing. Surely the "city" is large enough to exclude them from needing to be private?)
* Gangneung and Chuncheon are considered financially unstable.
So much for K League - K3/4 promotion relegation, huh?
I understand that some people are upset, but this is a small football sub, not a large place to sh*tpost and rant like maniacs suffering from verbal tourettes. I've already issued a short ban/time out and asked someone else to tone down their language.
An automated, suggested post..
"South Korea are very good"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXyS3H0BLBE
Sure, they are good. They are better than most teams in the world. But when you say "very" you tend to talk about the top 10 teams, teams capable of winning large tournaments like the Euros or World Cup. Korea is not a top 10 team.
The rest of the video is interesting, but he seems to ascribe deep feelings to Korean that I just don't think are there. Koreans just like it when their teams win and bring honour and fame to the country. It's not more complex than that.
This was a long one, both in travel time and in words written.
I went down "with" Seoul Amazones for their match against Gangjin. It was both interesting and disappointing at the same time, but I'm in no way sorry about making the trip.
https://thesidelinenotes.blogspot.com/2026/06/2613-how-far-south-are-we.html
