What to look forward to in K League in 2026 | OneFootball

Missing K League already? The 2026 season will be one to savour, partly because of some changes that are coming in 2027. 

The 2026 season will be the last of a 12-team K League 1 and will see the end of the split, Final A and Final B system. From 2027, K League 1 will have 14 teams with three round robins. It is the end of an era. The split system came into effect in 2012 in what was a 16-team K League 1, then a 14-team division in 2013, before becoming the 12-team league it is today the following year.

Super Cup

Kicking things off when the weather is still extremely chilly, February 21st will see Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors host Daejeon Hana Citizen in K League's first Super Cup since 2006. Jeonbuk have won the Super Cup once and finished runners-up twice, while Daejeon finished runners-up in 2002 in their only appearance. The season curtain raiser will see the K League 1 champions host the Korea Cup winners, or in the event of a team doing the double, the league champions will host the runners-up instead.

Korea Cup Calendar

Speaking of cups, the Korea Cup is switching to an autumn-spring format from 2026, with Round 1 through the Round of 16 (Round 4) to take place in July and August 2026, with the quarterfinals through the final held in May and June 2027. The change, the KFA says, is intended to better align with the AFC Champions League schedule and broader international football trends, while also enabling clubs to field their strongest squads in both the K League and the Korea Cup.

Sangmu to leave Gimcheon

Speaking of eras ending. After five years in Gimcheon, the army team is leaving. With the affiliation agreement between the K League, the Korea Armed Forces Athletic Corps (Sangmu), and Gimcheon City set to expire at the end of 2026, it has been decided that if Gimcheon City establishes a citizen-owned club, or if the Armed Forces Athletic Corps establishes a new club in a different home city and either side enters the K League from 2027, both clubs will compete in K League 2. In short, regardless of where Gimcheon finish in 2026, they will be relegated to K League 2. It is currently unclear what the army team's plans are in terms of a new home, and indeed whether the city of Gimcheon will create a citizen club.

Promotion-relegation system

The Gimcheon situation, coupled with an expanded K League 1 from 2027, means that the promotion and relegation system will look a bit different. There will be three guaranteed promotion spots in 2026, but how this will play out depends on where Gimcheon finish in the league standings.

If Gimcheon Sangmu finish 12th, only Gimcheon Sangmu are relegated and K League 2’s top two teams will be automatically promoted. The teams finishing third to sixth enter a four-team playoff, with the winner promoted to mean three up. No Promotion–Relegation Playoff with a K League 1 team will be held.

However, if Gimcheon Sangmu do not finish 12th, they are relegated regardless, but the team finishing 12th in K League 1 enters a Promotion–Relegation Playoff. K League 2’s top two-placed teams gain automatic promotion. The third to sixth-placed teams in K League 2 compete in a four-team playoff. The team that wins the promotion decider faces the K League 1 bottom side in the Promotion–Relegation Playoff.

Foreign goalkeepers allowed

For the first time since the early 2000s, K League teams will be allowed to sign foreign goalkeepers. A ban was put in place in order to help nuture goalkeepers for the national team, and there had long been calls for the ban to be lifted with the Taeguk Warriors in plenty of reliable custodians. Yongin FC became the first K League team to sign a foreign goalkeeper, acquiring Portuguese stopper Emanuel Novo.

Foreign player rules relaxed

The ban on foreign goalkeepers comes with a sort of complete lifting of foreign player restrictions. Clubs will now be able to sign as many foreign players as they wish, with five able to be on the pitch at the same time, up from four. The move is seen as a way of helping K League clubs stay competitive in AFC Champions League following the AFC's move to completely scrap the foreign player quota. In K League 2, the rule will remain the same: a maximum of four foreign players on the field at any one time.

K League 2 20-man matchday squads

The number of players allowed on the K League 2 matchday squad will increase from 18 to a maximum of 20. This change is intended to increase flexibility in the use of substitutes, improve overall match performance, and ensure playing opportunities for domestic players following the expansion of the foreign player registration quota. K League 1 has been operating with 20-player matchday squads since the 2024 season.

U22 rule scrapped

The often-abused and merely circumvented U22 player rule, whereby teams must start a player under the age of 22 and name another on the bench to be able to make five substitutions, has been scrapped in K League 1. However, at least two U22 players must still be named in the 20-man matchday squad. If only one U22 player is listed, the squad will be reduced to 19 players; if none are included, it will be limited to 18. The rule remains in place as it was in K League 2 meaning, in theory, young players should get more first-team opportunities in the second tier from 2026 onwards.

K League 1 newcomer

For only the third time ever, K League 1 will have a team brand new to the top tier. Bucheon FC 1995's promotion via the playoffs earned the Reds a spot in K League 1 for the very first time, following Suwon FC in 2015 and FC Anyang in 2024. Suwon last just a season before going straight back down again, but Anyang survived in 2025; how will Bucheon do?

Three new teams

There will be three new teams joining K League 2 to make a 17-team division: Paju Frontier, Gimhae FC 2008, and Yongin FC, two teams in Gyeonggi Province and one in the southeast.

Paju Frontier, initially named Paju Citizen, were formed in 2012 and spent the last five seasons in K3, finishing 10th last year. Yongin FC are technically a brand new club, founded this year, but have K League landed Lee Dong-gook as technical director and have already signed some big names. Gimhae FC 2008 were founded in, yes, you guessed it, 2008, and actually finished top of K3 last year, clinching their second K3 title, having also won it in 2020.