Top football league to add 2 clubs in 2027
K League President Kwon Oh-gap speaks during the annual awards ceremony at Swiss Grand Hotel in Seoul, Monday. Yonhap
The top division in Korean football will add two clubs to expand to 14 in 2027 by giving more second-tier teams a chance to earn promotion, the league office said Monday.
The Korea Professional Football League (K League) announced its expansion plan following Monday's board meeting, saying it wanted to achieve more balance between the top-flight K League 1 and the second-tier K League 2.
The K League 2 will welcome three new clubs next year to have 17 teams. The lower division has been growing steadily, going from 10 teams in 2021 to 11 in 2022, 13 in 2023, 14 in 2025 and 17 in 2026. However, the K League 1 has had 12 clubs in every season since 2014.
With two more clubs in action, the K League 1 schedule will also expand from the current 38 matches per team to 39 matches in 2027.
The league office also said the military club, Gimcheon Sangmu FC, will be automatically relegated to the K League 2 for 2027, regardless of their position in the tables, since an affiliation contract between the club and their current home city of Gimcheon will expire at the end of the 2026 season.
This will also affect the promotion-relegation rules. Currently, only the K League 2 champion earns automatic promotion and trades places with the last-place team in the K League 1, while the runner-up and a playoff winner from the K League 2 must win promotion-relegation playoff series to move up to the K League 1.
Under the new system in 2026, should Gimcheon Sangmu FC finish in last place in the K League 1, they will be the only top-tier club to suffer relegation. The top two clubs from the K League 2 will be directly promoted to the K League 1, alongside the winner of the four-team K League 2 playoffs involving teams ranked from third to sixth.
If Gimcheon Sangmu FC don't finish last in 2026, they will still be relegated and the last-place club will fall to the promotion-relegation playoff.
In this case, the top two K League 2 clubs and the K League 2 playoffs winner will still receive promotion. The K League 2 playoffs loser will face the last-place team from the K League 1 in the promotion-relegation playoff.
If the city of Gimcheon launches a new football club or if Sangmu find a new home for 2027, then both of those teams will play in the K League 2 in 2027.