Seongnam FC

Seongnam FC (Hangul: 성남 FC) is a South Korean professional football club based in Seongnam, South Korea. Seongnam plays in the K League 1, the top division in South Korea. Founded as Ilhwa Chunma Football Club in 1989, the club has won seven national league titles, three FA Cups, three League Cups, and two AFC Champions League titles. Seongnam also placed fifth in the IFFHS Asian Clubs of the 20th century.

In 2014, the club was bought by the Seongnam City Government and was officially renamed Seongnam FC.

History

Ilhwa Chunma era 1989–2013

Foundation

In 1975, Sun Myung Moon, the owner of Tongil Group, wanted to found a professional football club in South Korea. Since the Korean Super League was founded in 1983, he tried to find a club to participate in the league but Choi Soon-young, the head of Korea Football Association, ignored Moon's interest due to a religious reasons.

Nevertheless, Tongil Group prepared the foundation of a new football club since 1986 and finally obtained a license from Korea Football Association as a club based in Seoul. Tongil Group firstly considered to find the club in Honam provinces but there was objection from the local community.

Officially, the club was founded on 18 March 1989 as Ilhwa Chunma Football Club (Chunma is known in Korean culture as the winged horse that the Jade Emperor riding in heaven) and the club based in Seoul became the sixth member of the Korean Super League. The foundation ceremony was held in Sheraton Walkerhill Hotel in Seoul. Korea Football Association helped the club to form a team quickly by giving the permission to have six priority picks out of players from Honam regions in the 1989 K League draft. The club has chosen six players, including Ko Jeong-woon and signed Park Jong-hwan as the head coach. The contract with Park was a lucrative deal back then, deposit 100 million KRW with 48 million KRW as annual salary.

Early successes This page also has a version in other languages :  Соннам (russian)