Korea Women League
| Korea Women League | |
| Full name | Korea Women League |
| abbreviation | KW League |
| Association | Korea Football Association |
| First edition | 1996 |
| hierarchy | 1st League |
| Teams | 2-8 |
| master | Gyeongnam Daekyo Kangerous WFC |
| Record champions |
Incheon Hyundai Steel Red Angels (11th title) (first-half championship title ) |
| Current season | 2008 |
| Website | http://www.kwff.or.kr/main.do |
The Korea Women League was a women's football league in South Korean football . It existed from 1996 to 2001 and then under different names until 2008. It was the highest women's soccer league in South Korea at the time.
history
It was launched in 1996 after women's soccer teams wanted to host a championship. Both club and university teams took part until 2007, before the last event was only carried out with club teams. Participation in this competition was always voluntary, so that the number of participating teams fluctuated greatly. In the meantime, only two or even 8 teams played for the championship. Sometimes teams took part in the first half of the season, but no longer in the second half of the season.
Various teams took part in the competition. The best known was the record champions, Incheon Hyundai Steel Red Angels . Incheon and Gyeongnam Daekyo WFC included group-led teams in the league, as well as amateur religious teams like Nassau Mission FFC or Incheon Hebron FFC Mission , university teams like the women's football department at Hanyang University - and provincial teams like Chungcheongnam-do SV or Gwangju SV . The respective series was always played at one venue and usually lasted no longer than a week.
After more and more club teams were founded from 2002, the call for a professional league became louder and louder, which resulted in the founding of the WK League at the beginning of 2009 . The club teams have not participated in the league since then. The league now only exists for elementary, middle and high schools and universities, but it no longer exists for club teams.
The Korea Women League carried the official name as the competition name up to and including 2001, before the league was given other names from 2002 for sponsorship reasons. League sponsors were for example Puma, Daekyo Noonnoppi and MBC.
League format
Depending on the number of participating teams, the league was played either in a group stage or in a knockout round. In the meantime, the competition did not last two match days due to the few teams that took part. Usually everyone played against everyone in the group phase, whereby the 1st placed also became champion. From the 2000s onwards, the champions were determined with a knockout round beyond the group phase. Contrary to the men's soccer leagues, no championship final was played between the serial champions.
Playing times
Championship title
| team | title | Playing time (s) |
|---|---|---|
| Incheon Hyundai Steel WFC | 11 | 1996 , 1998 , 1999 , 2003 , 2004 , 2005 , 2006 |
| Sungmin Wonders WFC | 4th | 2000 , 2001 , 2002 |
| Gyeongnam Daekyo Kangerous WFC | 3 | 2004 , 2008 |
| Ulsan Jeonmun University | 3 | 1996 , 1997 , 1998 |
| Seoul WFC | 2 | 2007 |
| Chungcheongnam-do SV | 2 | 2004 , 2005 |
| Chungcheongbuk-do SV | 1 | 2005 |