New K League football season to kick off on Feb. 27

▲ In this file photo from Nov. 1, 2020, members of Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors celebrate their K League 1 championship at Jeonju World Cup Stadium in Jeonju, 240 kilometers south of Seoul. (Yonhap)

▲ This file photo from Aug. 2, 2020, shows fans attending a K League 1 match between the home team Busan IPark and Ulsan Hyundai FC at Busan Gudeok Stadium in Busan, 450 kilometers southeast of Seoul. (Yonhap)

▲ This file photo from June 16, 2020, shows Gangwon FC (in red and green) and Ulsan Hyundai FC in a K League 1 match at Gangneung Sports Complex in Gangneung, 230 kilometers east of Seoul. (Yonhap)

football-new season

New K League football season to kick off on Feb. 27

By Yoo Jee-ho

SEOUL, Jan. 28 (Yonhap) -- The 2021 South Korean football season will kick off on the final weekend of February.

The Korea Professional Football League (K League) unveiled its partial 2021 season fixtures for the top-flight K League 1 on Thursday, covering the first 33 matches.

For the season opener, four-time defending champions Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors will host FC Seoul at 2 p.m. on Feb. 27 at Jeonju World Cup Stadium in Jeonju, 240 kilometers south of Seoul.

Also on that day, Daegu FC will play Suwon FC, newly promoted from the K League 2, at 4:30 p.m. at DGB Daegu Bank Park in Daegu, 300 kilometers southeast of Seoul.

After the 12 clubs play those 33 contests by Oct. 3, they will be split into two tiers of six teams each and will finish out the season by playing five more matches within their own group. Fixtures for those remaining matches will be announced later in the season.

On Feb. 28, it will be Pohang Steelers vs. Incheon United, and Suwon Samsung Bluewings vs. Gwangju FC.

South Korean football legend Hong Myung-bo will make his K League coaching debut for Ulsan Hyundai FC at 2 p.m. on March 1, as they host Gangwon FC at Ulsan Munsu Football Stadium in Ulsan, 415 kilometers southeast of Seoul.

Seongnam FC will take on Jeju United, who earned the promotion to the K League 1 as the second-division champions.

The K League 1 will also accommodate four of its clubs competing at the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Champions League in April. Pohang and Daegu are scheduled to play in qualifying playoff matches, with a spot in the group stage at stake, on April 14, and there will be no K League matches that day.

The league will also go on hiatus from April 21 to May 7, when the AFC Champions League group stage will take place. Ulsan and Jeonbuk are already in the group stage, with Pohang and Daegu looking to join them in the 40-club continental tournament. The K League will resume on May 21.

Because of the coronavirus pandemic, the 2020 K League 1 season was cut short from the usual 38 matches to 27 matches. Most of them were contested without fans, further exacerbating financial problems for the league and its clubs.

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