South Korea players want K League season change due to ‘worsening climate’

South Korea’s Pro Footballers Association (KPFA) is calling on the K League to overhaul the domestic football season to avoid playing during the height of summer, as local temperatures reached record highs in August.

“The K League must transition to the Fall-Spring schedule to protect players from the worsening climate crisis and punishing summer heat,” the KPFA said in a statement, “and to maintain the league’s leadership within Asia and its global competitiveness.”

On August 2, the southeastern city of Yangsan recorded a temperature of 42.5 degrees Celsius (108.5 Fahrenheit), the highest in decades of official records, prompting authorities to warn residents to stay indoors. The Korean baseball league was suspended for a week due to the extreme heat.

The high temperatures also had an impact on the size of the crowd for Manchester City’s friendly exhibition against a K League All-Star team last week, although the Premier League club’s preseason exhibition win over Atletico Madrid attracted a full crowd on Sunday.

Seoul’s streak of 17 tropical nights – defined as nights when temperatures do not fall below 25 degrees Celsius (77 Fahrenheit) – ended Monday.

The 2026 K League season started on February 28 and is due to finish on December 6, but in the current climate, calls to move the traditional schedule have intensified.

The players’ association said changing the season timetable would also bring Asia’s oldest professional football league into line with Japan’s J League, which has just begun its first season on a summer-to-spring schedule, as well as the Asian Football Confederation’s Champions League Elite, which made the change in 2023, and most of Europe.

South Korea’s severe winter remains an obstacle to change, however, with subzero temperatures and snowfall common across the peninsula from December to February.