The nation's top football league on Monday approved a revised proposal for a promotion-relegation system for the 2013 season. The league hopes the structural change will discourage the sort of match-fixing schemes that plagued the league last year.
At the first general meeting of 2012, the K-League passed the proposal to relegate the two worst clubs from the 16-team league before 2013, and two additional teams for the 2014 season.
The general assembly is the executive body of the K-League. It includes one league representative, two Korea Football Association representatives, and delegates from all 16 K-League clubs.
Earlier Monday, the league's board of directors had passed the proposal.
The board is made up of 11 members -- two representatives from the K-League, one from the Korea Football Association, five K-League club delegates and three outside directors. Two team representatives and one outside director were absent from the board meeting.
The K-League had earlier proposed relegating four teams to the second-tier competition while retaining 12 teams in the first division.
At a board meeting last month, however, six community-owned clubs opposed the idea, saying it only catered to richer clubs and the have-nots of the K-League would have little chance of survival in the second division.
Those half-dozen community-owned teams are: Incheon United, Gyeongnam FC, Gwangju FC, Daejeon Citizen, Gangwon FC and Daegu FC. Some other teams in the K-League are owned by major corporations such as Hyundai and POSCO.
They instead called for the relegation of only two clubs. The K-League board accepted their proposal, but sources said the six teams are still opposed to sending down two additional clubs in 2014.
The community teams typically do not have the financial wherewithal to sign star players and they struggle to stay competitive on a regular basis. If they are relegated to the lower division, they are likely to take a big hit to their ticket sales and television rights, among other revenue sources.
Currently, the National League, with 14 clubs, serves as the de facto second-tier league. The K-League plans to form a new second division league with relegated K-League clubs, promoted National League teams plus some expansion teams. The second division will include up to 10 clubs starting in 2013, according to the K-League.
Two K-League teams are to face relegation after this year, but one club, Sangju Sangmu Phoenix, is already slated for the second-tier for 2013. The Asian Football Confederation (AFC), the regional governing body of the sport, recently ruled that the Phoenix, a military team comprised of conscripted players, didn't meet qualifications for a first-tier professional club.
In the current K-League format, the top six among 16 teams reach the playoffs.
The league is trying to introduce the promotion-relegation setting in response to a league-wide match fixing scandal last year.
Dozens of active and former players were indicted or convicted for allegedly accepting money from brokers in exchange for deliberately making mistakes in games.
The K-League believes the possibility of getting sent down to a lower-level competition will encourage players to stay competitive until the end of the season, without throwing or being tempted to throw games.
To prepare for full promotion-relegation, K-League will use a "split format" this year.
The 16 teams will be split into two halves based on their records after 30 games. The teams will each play seven more games within their half. The bottom feeders in the lower half will then be relegated to the second division the following season.
The Scottish Premier League currently uses this system. (Yonhap)