K League 2 is expanding, but why? | OneFootball

K League 2 is expanding. After previously welcoming teams from central Korea and Gimpo, the second tier is opening the doors again. A club from Yongin will be joined by one from either Paju or Gimhae. When will the madness end?

On Thursday, March 6, the worst-kept secret in Korean football was finally revealed. After months of speculation, Yongin City Hall ratified a commitment to establish a professional football team in the city. And this doesn't mean starting in K7 and looking to win promotions to reach thepromised land of K League 1. No, they are being parachuted straight into a bloated K League 2.

Yongin Mireu is a beautiful ground, but it is simply far too big for an expansion club.

Unlike Hwaseong FC, and before them Cheonan City, Chungbuk Cheongju, and Gimpo FC - clubs that previously made the jump without earning promotion the traditional way - Yongin FC doesn't even exist yet.COLLECT K LEAGUE MEMBERSHIP AS YOU PASS GO. Welcome to the party, Yongin. This isn't a particularly special membership. In fact, anyone can apply and join.

After the successful staging of Suwon Samsung fixtures in the latter half of 2024 and bailing out the KFA because the Seoul World Cup Stadium pitch was deemed unacceptable to host the World Cup qualifier against Iraq, Yongin already has their splendid, relatively new stadium ready for use. Yongin Mireu has hosted the Korean Men's and Women's National Teams, AFC matches, and often features in adverts or TV variety shows.

Yongin's automatic entry to the second division poses several problems. Firstly, there is already a surplus of Gyeonggi-do based clubs in that league. And two more outside the province - Cheonan City and Chungnam Asan - have stops on the Seoul subway system. At this point, the K League can't even divide the second tier into regions to cope with the influx of new clubs because if we take 2024 and 2025 as an example, only Cheongju, Jeonnam Dragons, Busan IPark, and Gyeongnam are separated from metropolitan Seoul.

Moreover, Seoul proper hosts two professional clubs, one in each division. Whilst it is true this region is home to over half the country's population, FC Seoul are the only club north of the Han River. The entire North Gyeonggi area has no professional clubs. If, like me, you live in south Gyeonggi-do, this is a paradise for Futbology check-ins. How this helps clubs to develop and grow when another team is next door is anyone's guess, however. Add Chungnam Asan and Cheonan City on Line 1, and that's 13 of the 26 clubs within a subway ride of each other.

A second complication is K League 2 is already too big. K League 1 has 12 teams, and 14 are in K League 2. Yongin's automatic entry will increase that latter number, and it doesn't end there. As we're about to find out, more clubs are about to have K League membership dangled in front of them. The good news - if there is any - is that the league's administrators are aware of the imbalance. K League 1 is slated to jump from 12 to 14 clubs from 2027 onwards, but this hasn't been confirmed. That would still leave an uneven number of clubs below the top flight.

A familiar sight at K League 2 matches.

But wait! No sooner had Yongin City released their plans, another club was appearing in the newspapers. Gimhae FC, of K3, also want a taste of the big time. Last month, an official with the KFA told me that Gimhae or Paju Citizen would make the jump in 2026. Paju's hopes rested on whether Korail, the state rail company, would take over the club. Interestingly, the governing body is looking to balance the number of city and privately owned football clubs.

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Enter Gyeongju Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power FC, also of K3. Gyeongju is a very small but beautiful historical city in south-east Korea. The club is surrounded by regional powers Pohang Steelers and Daegu FC. It doesn't make a lot of sense to turn Gyeongju professional but the club's ownership is apparently attractive to the K League. Again, more privately owned clubs are welcome.

Gyeongju's potential entry is very far down the track, but more pressing is what happens with Sangmu FC (the army club) once they leave the city of Gimcheon. Sangmu have a history of moving around, so relocating from Gimcheon where they enjoy modest (at best) support is unsurprising. Wherever they end up, the league will want them in top two tiers. Gimcheon city, however, have stated their ambition to keep a professional club in the city. Where will they play? Another team in K League 2?

If you're confused by all this, you're not alone. What we do know for absolute certainty is K League 2 is expanding from 2026 with two more clubs. Let's park the proposals on the table, and focus on what we can confirm.

Ansan Greener play at Wa~ Stadium, another fine local facility. This stadium would be too big for over half the K League 1 clubs, let alone a perennial struggler in the second tier.

Why is League 2 expanding? Without an official announcement from the authorities, we can only speculate. My theory is K League believes the competitions would have more legitimacy if they were bigger. Looking around the globe, 12 (or even 14) clubs in the top flight of a major football nation is small and rare. The simplest solution to the raft of new professional clubs entering the picture would be to turn K3 fully professional and even the number of clubs. But that's not what's happening. I think the K League would love to have two divisions of 16-18 clubs, in line with the global norm.

And this neatly leads us to problem number three. Where will the fans come from? Expansion wouldn't be an issue if the short distances in Gyeonggi-do and around the country guaranteed big crowds. But they don't. Attendances are mediocre and the stadiums are far too big. Hwaseong FC are the newest edition to professional football. Their home debut saw a good crowd of 3,731 versus Chungnam Asan. They haven't come close to that again. Hwaseong's April meeting with Jeonnam Dragons barely broke 1,000.

Seoul E-Land have averaged 3,600 per game, and that includes a bumper pay day against Suwon Samsung. It isn't just the second tier with attendance problems. Suwon FC, of K League 1, drew a miserable 1,884 fans for their top flight meeting with Jeju SK recently. It would be naive to assume Yongin or Gimhae/Paju will buckle the trend.

Why is this? Perhaps there are just too many new clubs in a small geographic area. The older clubs, like FC Seoul, Suwon Samsung, and Incheon United, have already hovered up much of the support in the capital region. Anyang and Seongnam (in the past) are reasonably strong, but maybe there isn't enough room for any more clubs? Football fans in Yongin are already likely to be Suwon or Seongnam supporters. Is there a need for a new team?

Anyang's three-sided stadium of temporary seating. A solution?

A fourth concern revolves around some of the facilities. What do Seoul E-Land, Bucheon, Anyang*, Seongnam, Ansan Greeners, Suwon FC, Cheonan City, Chungbuk Cheongju, Chungnam Asan, Hwaseong, and Yongin have in common?

All 10 clubs (and 11 in the future) play in a municipal stadium with a running track. Anyang's asterisks is because they have built three temporary stands to minimize the impact of the track. However, some home and all away fans are behind the track. This would be manageable if the stadiums are small. But Hwaseong and Yongin hold over 30,000. Suwon World Cup Stadium has a capacity of nearly 45,000. Even the smaller grounds, such as Yi Sun-sin in Asan and Castle Park in Suwon, are far too big for their tenants. Away fans at K League 2 matches rarely have a good view.

A fifth problem I see is related to talent. Are there enough players in Korea who can fill out full-time squads in the future for over 28 clubs? If there are too many teams, the talent will be spread too thinly across the country. The Korean Baseball Organization has enjoyed a significant increase in stadium attendances over the last few seasons, breaking the 10 million barrier last year.Sold Out signs are frequently seen at ticket booths. Despite domestic clamor to see two new teams created in Gangwon-do and Jeju Island, the league has resisted calls to expand. The talent isn't there, yet.

Suwon World Cup Stadium is my favorite in Korea. Despite being one of the country's best supported clubs, getting a ticket is never an issue.

Finally, why would a local city hall want to finance a project like this? In my opinion, the city halls have good facilities that are usually empty. They want to change that. I'd be shocked if this was simply a vanity project. City council staff are not idiots; they know 30,000 fans won't be showing up every fortnight to see the team. The mayor of any Korean city just needs to look at the crowds across the country to see the bar is set very low. If you can average 1,500 fans per game, no one will even notice.

Growing the current brand should be the priority, then look at expansion in the future. This is not the right time.