Football in South Korea


Football in South Korea is run by the Football Association. The association administers the national football team as well as the K League. Football is the most popular sport in South Korea. Approximately 67% of the people in South Korea are interested in football.

Beginning

In ancient times, Silla, one of Three Kingdoms of Korea, had a ball game called "Chuk-guk". Though Chukguk is similar to today’s football in many aspects, it features the distinctive rule that the ball should stay in the air during game play with the net also being mounted at a fixed distance above the ground.
However, Koreans first saw the present version of football in 1882 when British crew members played a game while their vessel,, was visiting the Port of Jemulpo.
After the establishment of a football team at Paichai Academy in Seoul in 1902, there was a footballing boom throughout Korea. The football was adopted as a physical education course at in 1904, and the first senior football match in Korea was contested between Korea Sports Club and Korea YMCA at Seoul Dongdaemun Stadium in 1905. The first Korean national football tournament, named All Joseon Football Tournament, was held by the Joseon Sports Council in 1921 after many football clubs and school football teams were formed since the 1910s including unofficial national team Joseon FC. The Joseon Referees' Association was created in 1928, and was reorganised as the Joseon Football Association in 1933. The creation of Joseon FA led to the establishment of several prominent clubs on the peninsula as Korean football began to enter a different form. Kyungsung FC and Pyongyang FC, founded around the same time in the two biggest cities of Korea, made deep impressions at the All Joseon Tournament, and developed a strong rivalry followed by an intercity football series. Kyungsung FC also became the only Korean club to win the Emperor's Cup in Japan.

Main articles

Attendances

The average attendance per top-flight football league season and the club with the highest average attendance:
SeasonLeague averageBest clubBest club average
202510,081FC Seoul23,185
202411,003FC Seoul27,838
202310,733FC Seoul22,663
20198,014FC Seoul17,061
20185,445Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors11,907
20176,505FC Seoul16,316
20167,873FC Seoul18,007
20157,720Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors17,413
20147,932Suwon Samsung Bluewings19,608
20137,656Suwon Samsung Bluewings17,689
20127,045FC Seoul20,502
201111,634FC Seoul27,962
201010,941FC Seoul30,849
200911,226Suwon Samsung Bluewings18,583
200812,901Suwon Samsung Bluewings23,817
200711,786Suwon Samsung Bluewings25,194

Relationships with English football

Since Tottenham Hotspur signed South Korean striker Son Heung-min in 2015, the club has been the most supported English Premier League club in South Korea. Previously, Manchester United was the most popular club in South Korea due to South Korean former midfielder Park Ji-sung. In 2020, a poll of South Koreans aged 16 to 69 found that 21.4% of respondents supported Tottenham Hotspur, compared to just 6.1% who supported Manchester United. In 2024, a survey of football fans from eight countries across the Americas, Asia and Europe found that 42.3% of South Korean football fans were Tottenham Hotspur supporters.