Rooting for Daegu and Incheon in the league. Jeonbuk in the ACL. Wish I could go to some of these games.. You folks in Korea have it so lucky.
FC Seoul only for me but if I go visit Korea again, I'll definitely catch a few matches regardless of who is playing
Gwangju FC in the 2nd division. Except I won't able to catch 96% of their matches. No team in K-League Classic. Going to be a neutral observer and hope there is a strong contender to Jeonbuk. Otherwise, we should be expecting another yawnfest for 2019. That being said, I like the level of foreigners most K-League clubs signed this year. Seems like a step up from last year's class.
Man I hope one day I can see the K-league expand to 16-18 teams in first division and 16-20 teams in the second. However, that'll take a radical change which I don't see happening.
We did have 16 teams in the first division few years ago. I thought it was a complete clusterfck tbh with you. 12 teams in the first division works well imo. And then 16-20 teams in the second division would be ideal for me. Or 12 teams in the second division and 10-12 teams in the third division.
I like this kid Jun Se Jin from Suwon Bluechickens. Kid's got some talent. Could be the next good forward in the league.
We had 16 teams but they were the only pro teams in Korea. I'm talking twice the number or more of pro teams in Korea which would require a radical change in two divisions. Yes, at the current stage having this many teams will be cluster********. In fact we probably need to down size. However, we need more financial resource in this league so that it can grow. People complain that we aren't sending players to Europe. Well the problem is that there isn't enough clubs for young players so they don't get enough opportunities. Have you seen the numbers of players in each team? We need to spread out the players more but it's impossible at this stage. So you see many players go to u-league which is a subpar league and thus delaying their progress.
I don't think having 16 teams in the top division would solve each team having 90 players on their squad or inability to send players to Europe. If anything, 12 teams mean better quality of football that players would be competing against each week. That means better chance of improving as individual footballers. If we had 16 teams, there will be plenty of teams and players that shouldn't be playing first division football and talent level of the league being spread out too thin and being of lower quality. You know where young players can get more opportunities? Being loaned out or transferred to 2nd division teams. The young kids that are truly talented will be playing in the first division. K-League isn't good enough to expand to 16 teams in the top division.
This approach can work if all 12 teams have competent management but that is not the case. You seem to imply that players that are "good enough" should be playing in the K-league, but I think that the managements aren't competent to decide on "who's good enough". The fact is the KFA and the K-league clubs "handpick" a very small group of prospects that are given more opportunities thus "gambling" on selected players. However, they aren't good at assessing players imo so if the x number of players fail, they are left with even smaller numbers of good player. When this process is happening, the rest of the "unselected" players just don't get the opportunity in the pro league because 1. There's too many prospects graduating from the youth league but small numbers of club (small numbers of placement), meaning many of them have to go to the U-league (subpar league), or take the risk and go abroad (often failing). But the players that are selected to the K-league, do you really trust the K-league scouts that they picked the best players? I doubt it. 2. Even if they manage to make it into the team, they now have to compete with 100 players (I know exaggeration) that includes established players (they get the preferability treatments) and other prospects in their shoes just for playing time opportunities. 3. You know how people say students learn better in a smaller class room, it's the same case with football I think. Players aren't getting the adequate training because the coaches have to deal with too many players at the same time. You also said something about loaning them to the K2, but that's even bigger of a problem because teams are even more inflated than K1 and with even more old players so they won't be getting adequate playing time there either. I'm just saying, having 22 pro teams just won't cut it with the number of players we have. What is important for our players is for them to get playing time in the pro scene so that they can improve. Then, let natural selection take its place and have the cream rise to the top. That's the only way they can improve. Having 16 teams is not a big number to dilute the quality of the league, This isn't like MLS where there's 24 or some shit.
Very,very debatable. I'd argue that there's been a direct correlation between dropping quality and increasing number of teams. You argue that there aren't enough clubs to soak up player production and therefore, the problem is quality control based on a player-to-coach ratio. This is fair, but assumes that quality output is equal across all youth. You assume that we have good players coming out of our schools but their development is capped because they're benching until they're 25-26. I don't think this is the case. We've got garbage (and a lot of garbage) coming out of our youth, feeding into the 16 teams. We can expand to 20 teams but that's not going to do anything to enhance quality. At the end of the day, this conversation is moot. Because supply exceeds demand. It's simple as that. There isn't any demand for a 16 team top-flight division. If you grab any casual watcher of the sport, male, aged 18 through 35. I guarantee you that they can't name more than 5-6 teams. This isn't about marketing, awareness, PR, advertising, any of that. If you asked people to even memorize the top 16 teams, they will tell you to fck off. This league is has failed, and failed hard. It's probably better to hit the reset button, manage the league with 6 teams and try different things to get people coming. It's never too late to expand after we validate things that work and don't work.
I think we've been trying the last 30 years? And also, per my post above: Is there market awareness that there are even 12 teams? (answer: probably not) Is there awareness that Jeonbuk have been destroying the league? (answer: probably not) It's easier to manage a league of 6 versus 12. Compare: KBO has limited teams but more games, higher attendance and higher revenue. Compare 2: In a macro-economic sense, what happens when you have too much supply? A recession.
Why do you say that? It was a home game for Gyeongnam against a team that just got promoted. Kunemoto seems to have taken a huge step this year as well.