Football in South Korea

The South Korean football league system contains two professional leagues, a semi-professional league and a amateur league for Korean football clubs.

The highest level of football in South Korea is the K League Classic which was founded in 1983. K League Challenge was founded in 2013 and is currently a second division. Below the level of the professional leagues is the semi-professional National League, which serves as the third division. the amateur Challengers League which is being considered the fourth division was added to the setup in 2007.

National League and Challengers League is called the third division and the fourth division for convenience, but they are the respectively disrelated and individual league.

There was no avenue for progression between any of the leagues until 2012, but it has been implemented after K League Challenge was founded.

The K League was created in 1983 and remained the only officially organized league competition in the country until the creation of the National League in 2003. The Challengers League was created in 2007 to give the structure as it exists today. For each division, its official name, sponsored name and number of clubs is given:

* As of 2013 season

Level	League / Division
1	K League Classic (Hyundai Oilbank K League Classic) 14 clubs
2	K League Challenge (Hyundai Oilbank K League Challenge) 8 clubs
3 (unofficial)	Korea National League (Shinhan Bank National League) 10 clubs
4 (unofficial)	Challengers League (Daum Challengers League) 18 clubs

Below this league structure there are many amateur, university and youth level competitions at varying levels. From 2008, the U-League, a league competition for university football clubs, will begin though it is likely to remain completely independent from the league structure above.