WK League News

As the National Sports Festival drew to a close, so did a chapter of Changnyeong WFC’s history, as the Korea Women’s Football Federation officially announced the relocation of the club to Gangjin, Jeollanam-do. The club’s contract with Changnyeong county was due to expire at the end of this year, and after years of poor league performance and financial difficulties, fans have known for a long time that the end of this season would be the end of Changnyeong WFC.

Meanwhile, a women’s football club was formally, if quietly, founded in the southern coastal county of Gangjin in September. With the timing of its launch ceremony and the ongoing recruitment of coaching staff, it was widely understood that this would be a new team, although questions remained about the status of players still under contract at Changnyeong in relation to this new club. Now that Changnyeong’s 2025 season is over, things are becoming clearer.

According to the most recent announcement, the KWFF and Gangjin County have signed an agreement stipulating that the existing Changnyeong WFC will relocate to Gangjin and be renamed as Gangjin WFC. KWFF chairman Yang Myungseok stated that the relocation of the club will facilitate a better environment for players, promising that the federation will “actively support” Gangjin WFC to ensure the club’s stability.

Changnyeong WFC has had an uneasy history. The club was founded in 2018 as an emergency measure to preserve the WK League following the dissolution of Icheon Daekyo. If the number of participating teams dropped to seven, the competition would be reclassified as a pilot scheme rather than an official league, so an eighth club was established urgently. Even with a small group of former Icheon players and some high-quality priority picks at the 2018 WK League draft, Changnyeong WFC’s squad mostly consisted of young, inexperienced players, and the club struggled in the league.

Over the past eight years, Changnyeong has never really moved on from the urgent and messy nature of its foundation. Finances have always been extremely limited, leaving Changnyeong to try and make their way in the WK League with a very small, inexperienced, and constantly changing squad. They haven’t had much success — the club finished in fifth place in the league in 2020 and seventh place in 2022, but have been dead last in all other seasons since their establishment. It’s hard to say that Changnyeong’s situation became dire — the truth is it was dire all along.

Reports that some young players wept when they were drafted to Changnyeong have become infamous, and with only one member of administrative staff on the books, the club has been unable to invest resources in marketing, communicating with fans, or improving the matchday experience. With no sign of improvement, the Ministry of Culture, Sport and Tourism said it would no longer be able to support the team financially from next year. Relations between the KWFF and Changnyeong County have soured as the situation has worsened, and the county is unable or unwilling to pour more money into the failing club.

Sadly for Changnyeong WFC’s small but dedicated band of local fans, the club has simply become unsustainable, and its disappearance is inevitable. On the bright side, the KWFF’s new partnership in Gangjin County allows the WK League to continue with eight teams. Moreover, it’s been a rough season for Changnyeong and their fans, but the club has managed to limp along to the end of 2025 despite persistent fears that the club might cease operations at the end of last season.

The timing of Changnyeong’s “rebirth” in Gangjin could turn out, in hindsight, to be rather serendipitous. The move comes at a time when the KWFF is not only promising change, but actively pursuing it. Under the banner of the W-Project, the KWFF plans to expand the WK League to ten teams within the next decade – maintaining the eight existing clubs has to be a priority to make league expansion feasible.Now that the relocation of the football club formerly known as Changnyeong WFC has been made official, the local sports council and the KWFF need to start making realistic plans to promote the team, attract fans, and bring in enough money to sustain the club.

It won’t be an easy start for Gangjin WFC, the first WK League team to be based in the southern province of Jeonnam. The club will start with only a handful of players under existing contracts, and will need to recruit wisely this winter to compete with the more established clubs in the WK League. Even in comparison to Changnyeong, Gangjin is a rural county, far from any major cities. It’s a long way for existing Changnyeong fans to travel, even if they want to support the new club, and quite a trek for away fans from any of the other seven WK League teams. Hopefully the KWFF and Gangjin County will be successful in building a stable football club supported by a local fanbase, so that Gangjin WFC can not only play, but truly compete, in the WK League for years to come.