K League 1 Final A and B Group Final Final...'Kim Ki Dongho' Seoul, Top Split in 5 Years
K League 1 Final A and B Group Final Final...'Kim Ki Dongho' Seoul, Top Split in 5 Years
Blog Article
The K-League 1 Final A Group (top split) and B Group (bottom split) have been finalized.
In the 31st round of the K League 1 held on the 22nd, 7th-ranked Gwangju FC was defeated by Jeju United and remained at 40 points (13 wins, 1 draw and 17 losses), and 6th-ranked Pohang Steelers beat Gangwon FC to reach 47 points (13 wins, 8 draws and 10 losses), making the final A group and B group split regardless of the results of the remaining two rounds of the regular league.
The Final A Group, which will compete for the K League 1 championship and the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Champions League qualification this season, will include leading Ulsan HD (55 points), Gimcheon Sangmu (53), Gangwon (51), Suwon FC (48), Pohang, and FC Seoul (47).
On the contrary, Gwangju (40 points), Jeju (38), Daejeon Hana Citizen (35), Jeonbuk Hyundai, Daegu FC (34), and Incheon United (32) will be in the Final B Group, where the promotion playoff (PO) and direct relegation teams will be decided.
K League 1, which will involve a total of 12 teams, will be conducted in such a way that the first to sixth-ranked teams will belong to Final A Group and the seventh to 12th-ranked teams will be in Final B Group, respectively, and the final round (34 to 38 rounds) will be held to determine the final ranking.
Teams in the same group will have a showdown once in a row. The final ranking will be based on the results of the regular league and the final round. The rankings between groups A and B are not reversed. For example, even if a team in A group has a lower score point than a team in B group after the final round, the lowest ranking of a team in A group will be sixth and the highest ranking of a team in B group will be seventh.
In the Final A Group, Seoul, which has made a fresh start under head coach Kim Ki-dong, is most notable to return to the team for the first time in five years since 2019. Seoul has been in the Final B Group for four consecutive seasons since 2020, starting in 2019, and this year, it will be able to break the trend and try again to win the K-League and the Asian stage.
It is the first time that Gimcheon, a promoted team, belongs to the Final A group since its foundation, and four years after 2020, including when it was managing director in Sangju. Suwon FC will also be in the Final A group for the first time in three years, and Gangwon Province for the first time in two years. Ulsan is in the Final A group for nine consecutive seasons from the 2016 season, and Pohang for three consecutive seasons from the 2022 season.
After the remaining two regular rounds and the final round, the Final A teams will compete with the K League 1 winners this season to qualify for the AFC Champions League Elite (ACLE) and AFC Champions League Two (2, ACL2) in the 2025-26 season.
First of all, the winner of the K-League 1 will automatically advance to the finals of the ACLE, the runner-up will play in the ACLE Playoff (PO), and the third-place team will play in the ACL 2. Compared to the UEFA club competition, ACLE is equivalent to the UEFA Champions League and ACL 2 is equivalent to the UEFA Europa League.
In the process, the final ranking of the K League 1 of the Korean Cup winners, who are scheduled to face Ulsan and Pohang in the finals, is a variable. The Korean Cup winners will be given the right to advance to the ACLE finals like the K League winners, and the condition is that the final ranking of K League 1 should be in the top four. 안전놀이터
If the final ranking of the Korea Cup winners falls below fifth place, the qualification for the ACLE finals, which will be returned to the Korea Cup winners, will be given to the runner-up team of the K-League 1 and the third-place team for the ACLE PO. Instead, the Korean Cup winners will go to ACL2.
The six teams that will be in the Final B Group will have to engage in a fierce "survival competition" for the rest of the season. With Jeju and Daejeon remaining in the Final B group for two consecutive seasons, four other teams - Gwangju, Jeonbuk, Daegu and Incheon - were in the Final A group just last season, but will lose their pride this season. In particular, Jeonbuk will have its first Final B fall since the split system was introduced.
After the final round, the team ranked 12th, the lowest in the K League 1, will be directly demoted to the K League 2 next season without any promotion or PO. The 11th-ranked team in the K League 1 will play the 2nd-ranked team in the K League 2, and the 10th-ranked team will play the promotion or PO with the winning team in the K League 2 PO, which will be played by the 3rd to 5th-ranked teams in the K League 2, respectively, to decide whether to stay or be demoted. One or two teams will be demoted from the K League 1 to the K League 2 every season. The schedule of the final round will be revealed later.