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, LG Cheetahs, and Yukong Kokkiri based in Seoul. KFA and Korea Professional Football League officials were impressed with the J-League's decentralization policy, 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 Kokkiri - 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. As a result, Ilhwa Chunma became Cheonan Ilhwa Chunma, LG Cheetahs became Anyang LG Cheetahs, and Yukong Kokkiri became Bucheon SK.

By 2000, with Cheonan Ilhwa Chunma's move to Seongnam, 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 move back 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^[2] 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 F.C.. Bucheon SK finally moved from the Seoul capital region to the last remaining vacant World Cup stadium, Jeju World Cup Stadium, in 2006.

References

1. ^ "일화 유공 LG, 내년에 서울연고 없어 (Korean)". Monthly Football. 1995-12. http://ikfhs.tistory.com/entry/서울연고공동화정책. 
2. ^ "안양LG, ‘서울LG’ 선언 (Korean)". Kyunghyang Newspaper. February 2, 2004. http://news.naver.com/main/read.nhn?mode=LSD&mid=sec&sid1=001&oid=032&aid=0000051353&. 

• K-League Official Website : The History of K-League - 1996 season