Expectation high over Seoul E-Land FC

From left are Kim Jae-sung, Martin Rennie and Kim Young-kwang / Courtesy of Seoul E-Land FC

Ex-MLS coach ready to make impact on K-League

By Nam Hyun-woo

For a long time, there has been no stimulus for Korea's professional football league, the K-League.

The league operators have attempted various measures, such as introducing the “split” system to resuscitate the stagnant league, but fans haven’t been impressed.

According to the operators, the average audience per top-tier K-League Classic game in 2014 was 7,905, up 3.5 percent from last year. For a second-division K-League Challenge game, an average of 1,227 people visited stadiums last year, but only 594 paid for tickets.

Amid such circumstances, a new team, Seoul E-Land FC, will jump into the K-League Challenge from this season. Football observers say the impact of E-Land FC's foundation is different from the fan-owned, club-founding boom which swept the country for a decade after the country's successful 2002 World Cup campaign.

The club, run by fashion and retail giant E-Land, announced its establishment in April last year and the Seoul-based club was authorized to join the K-League on Jan. 19. It is the first company-owned football club since 1995 when Suwon Samsung was formed.

It is debatable whether company-owned clubs financially contribute more to the football community than fan-owned clubs, but the moves E-Land has shown in the draft and the transfer market in recent months has raised expectations.

The K-League draft for the 2015 season scheduled for last month was cancelled amid rumors of three fan-owned clubs disbanding from the K-League Classic. In the meantime, E-Land FC, which has 11 first picks, selected eight talented players.

Also, last July the club signed Martin Rennie, a former coach of the Vancouver Whitecaps in Major League Soccer, to manage the club until 2017. The coach is well-known to Koreans because retired star wingback Lee Young-pyo played with the Canadian side from 2011 to 2013. Rennie coached the team then.

Rennie's appointment is also fresh for the K-League. He is the second foreign coach to manage a new team, following Werner Lorant who led Incheon United in 2004.

Another plus for the coming season is the prospect of a Seoul derby with FC Seoul ― one of the favorites in the top-flight league. Fans are expecting an explosive fixture in the K-League, if E-Land FC replicates the success of Guangzhou Evergrande FC in the Chinese Super League, who won the Asian Champions League in 2013 after Evergrande Real Estate Group purchased the team and pumped massive funds into the club.

This is not the first time the company has founded a football club. In 1992, it formed a semi-professional team that ruled the semi-pro leagues for six years until the company folded the team in 1998. This was a year after the unprecedented financial crisis hit not only the company, but also the entire Asian region.

According to officials at the club, the company decided to invest into football again, with a view that sports could be a lucrative investment.

Improving the fans' experience is the company’s prime goal they say. In a bid to accomplish that goal, the club will install some 5,000 removable seats in the track of their home stadium of Jamsil Olympic Main Stadium. The club said it will convert the 69,000-seat complex stadium into a football-specific stadium, providing a closer viewing experience.

'Rennie's fledglings'

The club has decided to market their young players as “Rennie's fledglings.”

The term mimics “Fergie's fledglings,” coined for Manchester United players David Beckham, Gary Neville, Phil Neville, Paul Scholes, Nicky Butt and Ryan Giggs, who were recruited and trained under former coach Sir Alex Ferguson and brought many trophies to the club.

Seoul E-Land FC explained that the term represents Rennie's hope to give young players a chance and nurture them as not only a great footballers, but good people.

Last month, the club held a trial, called “The offer 2015,” to recruit new players and offered a contract to Choi Yoo-sang, who had played for an amatuer-league team Choengju Jikji FC.

Choi, who was the top scorer of the K3 Challengers League last season, joined K-League's Daegu FC in 2011, but failed to adapt himself to the team and moved to Yongin City FC in the third-tier National League a year later. However, injury hampered him and he temporarily gave up football and started working in a factory in Gimhae, South Gyeongsang Province. Thanks to a friend's help, he resumed the sport at the Cheongju-based club which led him back into professional football.

“I will help him to advance again in the pro level, just like Charlie Austin of the English Premier League,” said Rennie. Charlie Austin is a striker for Queens Park Rangers whose former job as a bricklayer drew public attention.

Choi and the rest of Rennie's fledglings are currently training individually. From Jan. 29, they will start training collectively at the Hyochang Stadium in Yongsan.