BAYERN LIFE
SMALL BASE, BIG SUCCESSES
Facts, stats and figures on football in South Korea.
THE BIG GAME
On 3 August 2024, 63,500 spectators watched a friendly between FC Bayern and Tottenham Hotspur at the Seoul World Cup Stadium.
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The three Bayern fans stroll through the fashionable Ikseon neighbourhood, where there are lots of good bars and restaurants.
The record champions
The K League was founded in 1983, making it the oldest East Asian professional league. These five teams have been champions most often( Minjae Kim won the title in 2017 and 2018 with Jeonbuk).
Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors Seongnam FC FC Seoul Pohang Steelers Uslan HD FC
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Germany is seven hours, they rarely meet in person. Instead, they cheer on their team together in a live stream – usually via the Discord app, where fans can chat or send audio messages. The Korean women are also active outside of football. When the country elected a new president in 2022, Red Light Korea campaigned prominently on social media channels for people to go to the ballot box. And in 2023, the fans collected donations for the earthquake victims in Turkey and Syria.
Female voices in the stadium
The female Bayern fans are wholly committed to women‘ s rights and equality. This is not a given in South Korea. The East Asian so-called“ Tiger State” has, in many respects, arrived in the future with the production of high-quality semiconductors and ultra-fast internet available everywhere, but society is still strongly patriarchal in some respects. South Korea still has the widest gender income gap of all OECD countries. But progress is being made.” Koreans have now developed a greater awareness of women‘ s rights,“ says Kay. Of course, there is still a lot to be done, including in football, where the number of women and girls attending stadiums in South Korea has risen noticeably in recent years. The friends of Red Light Korea are not just fans of FC Bayern. They’ re part of a societal development.
The serial champions
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In addition to the K League, the WK League – the country‘ s top women‘ s football league – has also been operating in South Korea since 2009. Like FCB, the Incheon Hyundai Steel Red Angels won 11 consecutive league titles up to 2023.
More fans than athletes
Despite the relatively long professional league history and the major international successes, not many people in South Korea play football themselves, as a comparison with Germany shows.
51,8 MILLION inhabitants
100.000 million footballers( 0,2 %)
84,6 MILLION inhabitants
2,2 million footballers( 2,6 %)
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