It has been over 10 years since the promotion and relegation system was implemented in the K-League. In the meantime, the survival rate of teams promoted from K League 2 (2nd division) to K League 1 (1st division) is 64.3% in the first year of promotion. This is why attention is focused on whether Gwangju FC and Daejeon Hana Citizen, the promoted teams this season, will survive in K League 2 last season.
After the implementation of the K-League promotion and relegation system, 14 teams were honored with promotion, but 5 of them suffered the pain of being relegated again the year after promotion. On the other hand, if you survive in K League 1 in the first year, you can steadily reinforce your strength, and you can aim to settle in K League 1 beyond staying.
A representative example is Suwon FC. Suwon FC, which was promoted to K-League 1 prior to 2016, was immediately relegated and spent four years in the second division starting in 2017. At the same time as the re-promotion in 2021, the squad was reorganized by recruiting as many as 18 people, and as a result, it entered a stable period with 5th place in 2021 and 7th place in 2022.
Gwangju and Daejeon Hana returned to the K-League 1 after 2 years and 8 years, respectively. Gwangju succeeded in promotion thanks to coach Lee Jeong-hyo’s unique tactical management and aggressive investment in Daejeon Hana, but already began a desperate hardening process to increase the survival rate from the end of last year.
Last year’s K-League 2 winner Gwangju is focusing on recruiting foreign players. The main resource Hayes was given to Jeju United, and the budget was the same as last year, but under the internal judgment that the ransom of domestic players was bubbled, it was decided to fill all 5+1 foreign quotas. 먹튀검증 Aaron (Australia) and Sandro (Brazil) decided to continue accompanying them, and Timo (Netherlands), Thomas (Brazil), and Asani (Albania) joined as new members.
He is busy reinforcing his squad even in a single match. Last year, they recruited Yoo Kang-hyun, who ranked first and second in the K-League 2 scoring rankings, Thiago (Brazil), and center back hopeful Kim Hyun-woo. Leandro (Brazil) and Ju Se-jong, etc., were renewed early at the end of last year, and Lee Jin-hyun, who was seeking to re-enter Europe, was retained to reduce power leakage. However, in order to fill the gap in Kim Jae-woo’s enlistment, he is focusing on reinforcing center backs and defensive midfielders, but it is said that the transfer market is experiencing difficulties due to high prices.