The 2023 K League 2, also known as the Hana 1Q K League 2 for sponsorship reasons, was the 11th season of the

K League 2 The K League 2 () is the men's second-highest division of the South Korean football league system. It is contested between thirteen professional clubs and operates on a promotion and relegation system with K League 1. History In 2011, the or ...

, the second-highest division in

South Korean football league system The South Korean football league system contains two professional leagues, two semi-professional leagues, and various amateur leagues for South Korea, Korean Football (soccer), football clubs. The highest level of football in South Korea is the ...

. Following the regular season, in which each team played each other three times,

Gimcheon Sangmu Gimcheon Sangmu Football Club () is a South Korean professional football club based in Gimcheon that competes in the K League 1, the top tier of South Korean football. Sangmu is the sports division of the Republic of Korea Armed Forces. Sangmu' ...

were the champions, gaining direct promotion to K League 1. After three rounds of play-offs, no other teams were promoted at the end of this season.

Teams

Team changes

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

champions

Gwangju FC Gwangju FC () is a South Korean professional football club based in Gwangju that competes in the K League 1, the top tier of South Korean football. They joined the K League in the 2011 season. History Gwangju FC was founded in December 2010, b ...

and play-off winners

Daejeon Hana Citizen Daejeon Hana Citizen FC () is a South Korean professional football team based in Daejeon, competing in K League 1, the top tier of South Korean football. At the time of its foundation in 1997, Daejeon was the first community-owned club in South K ...

were promoted to the

K League 1 The K League 1 () is a professional association football league in South Korea and the highest level of the South Korean football league system. The league is contested by twelve clubs. It is one of the most successful leagues in the Asian Foo ...

, while

Seongnam FC Seongnam Football Club () is a South Korean professional football (soccer), football club based in Seongnam that competes in the K League 2, the second tier of South Korean football. It is one of the most successful clubs in South Korea and the ...

and

were relegated from the top flight. Cheonan City and Chungbuk Cheongju, which played in the

K3 League The K3 League is the third-highest division in the South Korean football league system. It was run as an amateur league until 2019, but was relaunched as a semi-professional league after absorbing the Korea National League in 2020. It is cur ...

until 2022, joined the

K League K League () is South Korea's professional football league. It includes the first division K League 1 and the second division K League 2. Clubs competing in the K League have won a record total of twelve AFC Champions League Elite, AFC Champions ...

and made their professional debuts in the K League 2.

Locations

Stadiums

Foreign players

Restricting the number of foreign players strictly to five per team, including a slot for a player from the AFC and

ASEAN The Association of Southeast Asian Nations, commonly abbreviated as ASEAN, is a regional grouping of 10 states in Southeast Asia "that aims to promote economic and security cooperation among its ten members." Together, its member states r ...

countries. Gimcheon Sangmu FC, being a military-owned team, is not allowed to sign any foreign players. A team could use five foreign players on the field each game, including at least one player from the AFC and ASEAN. Players in bold were registered during the mid-season transfer window.

League table

Positions by matchday

Results

Matches 1–26

Matches 27–39

Promotion play-offs

The first round was contested between the fourth and fifth-placed teams, and its winners played the third-placed team in the second round. When the first and second round matches were finished as draws, their winners were decided on the regular season rankings without extra time and penalty shoot-outs. The winners of the second round and the runners-up competed with the tenth and eleventh-placed teams of the

, respectively, in the final round for the K League 1 spots of the next season. Each match of the final round was a

two-legged tie In sports (especially association football), a two-legged tie is a contest between two teams which comprises two matches or "legs", with each team as the home team in one leg. The winning team is usually determined by aggregate score, the sum ...

Bracket

First round

Second round

Final round

''Gangwon FC won 2–1 on aggregate and therefore both clubs remain in their respective leagues.'' ---- ''Suwon FC won 6–4 on aggregate and therefore both clubs remain in their respective leagues.''

Statistics

Top goalscorers

Top assist providers

Awards

Weekly awards

Monthly awards

Annual awards

The 2023 K League Awards was held on 4 December 2023.

Attendance

Attendants who entered with free ticket were not counted.

References

External links

Official website

2023 K League Technical ReportArchived
{{2023 in South Korean football K League 2 seasons 2 K