The Korea National League () was a South Korean

semi-professional Semi-professional sports are sports in which athletes are not participating on a full-time basis, but still receive some payment. Semi-professionals are not amateur because they receive regular payment from their team, but generally at a cons ...

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 ...

league held annually from 2003 to 2019. It was considered the second-highest division of the

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 ...

before 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 ...

was launched in 2013, and the third-highest division since then.

History

The Korea National League was officially founded in the name of ''K2 League'' in 2003 to execute a plan to professionalize the

Korean National Semi-Professional Football League The Korean National Semi-professional Football League was contested between South Korean works teams and military teams from 1964 to 2002. It was the predecessor of the Korea National League which was founded in 2003. History After the introduc ...

. The participating clubs of the National League had to have their hometowns unlike in the Semi-professional League era. In 2006, the K2 League was re-branded as the Korea National League, and its champions were decided to promote to 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 ...

. However, Goyang KB Kookmin Bank and

Hyundai Mipo Dockyard HD Hyundai Mipo (abbreviated: HMD; ) is one of the largest shipbuilding companies with the world's largest share (50%) in PC (Product Carrier) segment. Since the 1980s, more than 10,000 ships were repaired and converted until 2005 and 400 newly ...

, the champions of the 2006 and 2007 season respectively, judged that they couldn't derive benefit from their professionalization, and rejected their promotion. 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 ...

and the K League Federation eventually prepared another project to found the second-tier professional league which is irrelevant to the National League. At the end of 2019, the Korea National League was absorbed into 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 ...

All-time clubs

Champions

Champions by season

Performance by club

Sponsorship

References

External links

Official website

Twitter
{{Football in South Korea 3 2003 establishments in South Korea Sports leagues established in 2003 Third-level football leagues in Asia