K-League football club Sangju Sangmu will boycott the remaining 14 games of the season after being told it will be relegated to South Korea's second tier next year due to the status of its players.
Sangju, operated by the military and consisting of professional players carrying out their mandatory two-year military service, was informed this week it will be relegated regardless of its place in the standings at the prompting of the Asian Football Confederation, which requires all professional players have a contract with their clubs.
Sangju's players are still under contract with the original K-League teams they will return to once their two-year military service is over. During their national service, players receive the same monthly stipend as all other conscripted soldiers.
''The Armed Forces Athletic Corps and the Defense Ministry held talks today, and we've decided not to play the rest of the season,'' Sangju general manager Lee Jae-cheol told Yonhap News Agency on Wednesday. ''We just don't have the motivation to play out the season. The ministry is adamant about this.''
Relegation has been introduced to the K-League this season as part of South Korean football's restructuring after a 2011 match-fixing scandal, when more than 50 past and present players and coaches were indicted for allegedly accepting money to rig the results of games.
Sangju Sangmu had more players involved in the scandal than any other.
As well as relegation, the K-League has just been split into two groups of eight after the original 16 teams played 30 games of the season in a version of the system used by the Scottish Premier League. There are now 14 games remaining. The top group of eight plays each other twice for the title while the bottom group plays in order to avoid the second relegation spot.
Sangju finished 15th after 30 games and was due to play Daegu FC in the first game after the split on Sunday.
K-League officials were unavailable for comment.
