South Korea K League 1 to Begin
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There appears to be some light at the end of the tunnel as far as professional football is concerned. Most of the leagues around the world have been suspended due to the coronavirus but one league which is set to begin on the weekend is the South Korea K League 1.
The regular season was scheduled to begin on 29 February and to end on 4 October. However, following the COVID-19 outbreak it was suspended, with a new start date of 8 May put in place.
The good news is this start date is going to be met and the first game of the 2020 South Korea K League 1 will take place on 8 May. There will be some changes to the structure of the season with 22 regular season matches and 5 final round matches per team. Interestingly, Sangju Sangmu will be relegated this season regardless of where they finish in the league. This is because they are due to relocate in 2021.
Sangju Sangmu are an interesting team because they are made up of South Korean professional footballers serving their compulsory two-year military duty. This means they have a young squad and are not allowed to sign any foreign players due to their military status.
There are two places for relegation at the bottom of the South Korea K League 1. Therefore, if Sangju Sangmu were to finish above those two places only the bottom club will be relegated this season. If Sangju Sangmu finish in 12th place (bottom of the league), then the 11th place club will go into a relegation playoff.
The defending champions are Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors. They have won the league title in five of the last six seasons and are very much the dominating force in South Korean football. Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors are managed by Jose Morais, who is a former assistant of Jose Mourinho. He worked with the current Tottenham Hotspur manager at Real Madrid, Inter Milan and Chelsea plus had a spell as manager of Barnsley in English football.
Despite winning the League for the 5th time in six seasons last year, Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors only finished top courtesy of a superior goal difference. Ulsan Hyundai were the unfortunate team to miss out and they will be hoping to go one better in the 2020 campaign. They play their home games at the Ulsan Munsu Football Stadium and are managed by former South Korea international, Kim Do-hoon. They will have four foreign players in their squad this season who are Jason Davidson, Dave Bulthuis, Júnior Negrão and Bjørn Johnsen.
Another team who will be hoping to compete for the South Korea K League 1 is FC Seoul. They are the only team other than Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors to win the league in the past six years. They have twice reached the final of the AFC Champions League and FC Seoul have former Arsenal and Monaco striker, Park Chu-young in attack.
It should be between these three teams to see who is going to lift the K league 1 title in South Korea this season but do not rule out Pohang Steelers, who last won the league in 2013.
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