{"id":5953,"date":"2020-04-24T11:53:05","date_gmt":"2020-04-24T11:53:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=5953"},"modified":"2026-04-24T05:46:46","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T08:46:46","slug":"k-league-south-korea-return","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/k-league-south-korea-return","title":{"rendered":"K League to return on May 8"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Professional football return to South Korea after the K League announced its season will kick off on May 8.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

South Korea.- Professional football is back on in South Korea after the K League<\/em><\/strong> announced a return date of May 8.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After more than two months of delays caused by the Coronavirus outbreak which hit South Korea particularly hard, both K League 1 and K League 2 will kick off in the second week of the month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The decision was reached during the league’s meeting with club representatives<\/em><\/strong><\/a> at the league headquarters in Seoul this morning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To begin the season, matches will be played without fans. It’s unclear on how long this will be the case, but the league said the health of fans, staff and players are being considered of paramount importance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The season was originally scheduled to begin on February 29, but the start was postponed five days prior because of the Coronavirus outbreak.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Apart from in Belarus, global football remains out of action. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Bundesliga in Germany has announced plans to resume around a similar date, while leagues in Scotland, Belgium and the Netherlands are look set to void their current seasons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first match of the K League season will see three-time defending champions Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors host Suwon Samsung Bluewings at Jeonju World Cup Stadium in Jeonju.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Professional football return to South Korea after the K League announced its season will kick off on May 8.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5903,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"The K League in South Korea is set to resume its professional football season on May 8, with matches initially played without spectators. This decision marks one of the first major global football leagues to restart amidst the Coronavirus pandemic, following a delay from its original February 29 schedule. The resumption provides crucial content for sports betting markets and offers a potential blueprint for other leagues considering their return.","focusai_entities":"K League, Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors, Suwon Samsung Bluewings, Bundesliga","focusai_location":"South Korea, Seoul, Jeonju, Germany, Scotland, Belgium, Netherlands, Belarus","focusai_target_profile":"operator_casino (0.9), investor_analyst (0.85), supplier_vendor (0.8), regulator (0.75), journalist_researcher (0.8), compliance_legal (0.7)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"GGR Projections?","query":"What are the projected incremental Gross Gaming Revenue (GGR) contributions for licensed sports betting operators in relevant jurisdictions, specifically attributable to the K League's resumption?"},{"label":"Market Integrity?","query":"How will the K League's decision to play without fans impact betting market liquidity and integrity monitoring, and what enhanced protocols are anticipated from B2B data suppliers and regulatory bodies?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[160,161,16338,155],"tags":[7299,4937,15539,152,233],"class_list":["post-5953","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-asia-pacific","category-daily-news","category-east-asia-news","category-sports-betting-news","tag-coronavirus","tag-football","tag-k-league","tag-south-korea","tag-sports-betting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5953","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5953"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5953\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":777009560,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5953\/revisions\/777009560"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5903"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}