Hwaseong FC () is a South Korean professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

club based in Hwaseong,

Gyeonggi Province Gyeonggi Province (, ) is the most populous province in South Korea. Seoul, the nation's largest city and capital, is in the heart of the area but has been separately administered as a provincial-level ''special city'' since 1946. Incheon, ...

. They play in

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 tier of South Korean football. Founded in 2013, the club is owned by Hwaseong City and play their home games at Hwaseong Stadium.

History

In September 2012, Hwaseong City formed a committee to promote the establishment of Hwaseong FC. In January 2013, the team received approval from the

Korea Football Association The Korea Football Association () is the governing body of football and futsal within South Korea. It sanctions professional, semi-professional and amateur football in South Korea. Founded in 1933, the governing body became affiliated with ...

to participate in the amateur fourth-tier Challengers League (later renamed as K3 League). The club was officially founded on 23 January 2013 as a semi-professional club. In their first season, Hwaseong FC immediately finished first in the Challengers League – Group B and advanced to the final stages, but failed to advance to the championship finals after being eliminated by Paju Citizen, finishing the season in third place overall. However, in the 2014 season, Hwaseong won their first title after defeating Pocheon Citizen 3–1 in the Challengers League championship play-off final, held in

Pocheon Pocheon (; ) is an landlocked, inland Administrative divisions of South Korea, city in northeast Gyeonggi Province, South Korea. It covers 2 with a population of 160,176 people, according to the 2008 census. Pocheon lies between Seoul and the mou ...

in front of about 4,000 spectators. Five years later, in

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

, Hwaseong, under head coach Kim Hak-chul, won their second K3 League title after defeating Yangpyeong FC 1–0 in the final. In the same season, Hwaseong became the first fourth-division team to reach the semi-finals of the

Korean FA Cup The Korea Cup (), formerly the Korean FA Cup, is a national Association football, football cup knockout competition of South Korea, held annually by the Korea Football Association (KFA). Before the competition was established in 1996, two simil ...

. In the first semi-final match, Hwaseong managed to upset four-time Korean champions

Suwon Samsung Bluewings The Suwon Samsung Bluewings () are a South Korean Association football, football club based in Suwon that competes in the K League 2, the second tier of South Korean football. Founded in December 1995, they have won the K League on four occas ...

with a 1–0 win, but lost the second leg 3–0 after

extra time Overtime (OT) or extra time (ET) is an additional period of play to bring a game to a decision and avoid declaring the match a tie or draw where the scores are the same. In some sports, this extra period is played only if the game is required t ...

and were eliminated 3–1 on aggregate. They won another K3 League title in

2023 Catastrophic natural disasters in 2023 included the Lists of 21st-century earthquakes, 5th-deadliest earthquake of the 21st century 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes, striking Turkey and Syria, leaving up to 62,000 people dead; Cyclone Freddy ...

, before finishing as runners-up in their final semi-professional season the following year. Hwaseong FC turned professional in December 2024, joining the second-tier

. Former South Korean international Cha Du-ri was appointed head coach for the team's first professional season.

Colours and crest

Hwaseong FC's main colour is orange, which is also the colour that symbolizes the city of Hwaseong. The current club crest, in use since 2023 to celebrate the club's tenth anniversary, features the English initials of Hwaseong City, 'H' and 'S', placed in the centre. The pillars on each side represent the administrative districts of Hwaseong City. In the bottom centre, there is a forest path and a

pine A pine is any conifer tree or shrub in the genus ''Pinus'' () of the family Pinaceae. ''Pinus'' is the sole genus in the subfamily Pinoideae. ''World Flora Online'' accepts 134 species-rank taxa (119 species and 15 nothospecies) of pines as cu ...

, the official tree of Hwaseong. The V-shape denotes the

Yellow Sea The Yellow Sea, also known as the North Sea, is a marginal sea of the Western Pacific Ocean located between mainland China and the Korean Peninsula, and can be considered the northwestern part of the East China Sea. Names It is one of four ...

, which forms the maritime boundaries of Hwaseong, and 'Victory', which symbolizes endless possibilities like the wide sea. The club's previous crest, used from 2013 to 2022, featured the emblem of Hwaseong City, along with one of the city mascots, Coriyo (also spelled as Koriyo).

Stadium

Hwaseong FC play its home games at Hwaseong Stadium, located within the Hwaseong Sports Complex Town. Between 2013 and 2022, they played on the stadium's auxiliary field, and since 2023, they have played at the 35,265-capacity main stadium.

Current squad

Managerial history

* Kim Jong-boo (2013–2015) * Lee Do-yong (2016) * Kim Sung-nam (2017–2018) * Kim Hak-chul (2019–2021) * Kang Chul (2022–2023) * Ju Seung-jin (2024) * Cha Du-ri (2025–present)

Honours

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 ...

**Winners (3):

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

**Runners-up (1):

2024 The year saw the list of ongoing armed conflicts, continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Myanmar civil war (2021–present), Myanmar civil war, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudane ...

Season-by-season records

References

External links

* {{K3 League Sport in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi K3 League clubs K3 League (2007–2019) clubs K League 2 clubs Association football clubs established in 2013 2013 establishments in South Korea