South Korea soccer players push for a K League season shift as heat punishes summer matches

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea’s Pro Footballers Association is calling on the K League to overhaul the domestic soccer 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 this week, “and to maintain the league’s leadership within Asia and its global competitiveness.”

On Aug. 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 because of 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 pre-season exhibition win over Atlético 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 Feb. 28 and is due to finish on Dec. 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 soccer 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.

Lee Keun-ho, the association’s president and a former South Korea international, suggested a schedule change could be accommodated by a competition pause during the coldest months.

“Players agree that enjoying a break during winter can better help them avoid injuries and maintain better physical form than having to play through multiple competitions under the scorching summer sun,” Lee said, adding that some structural changes at venues would also help. “The league should set up more heating devices at stadiums and install hybrid grass for pitches, and make investments that can help the league for the long haul.”

South Korean media published results of the union's emergency player survey on heatwave match operations and called for stricter heat-response standards.

The survey included 536 players from the professional men's and women's leagues in South Korea. Overall, 86.2% said the heatwave placed a physical burden on them, with 45.2% (242 players) answering “very much so” and 41% (220 players) answering “yes.”

In a multiple-response question on physical symptoms during matches, dizziness was most the common concern at 64.7% (347 players), followed by dehydration at 56.6% (303), headache at 32.2% (173), temporary loss of consciousness at 13% (70) and nausea at 12.2% (65).

Nearly half of the players (48.4%) in the group said current cooling breaks were sufficient to protect players, while only 15.3% said the current policies were sufficient.

See AP’s full soccer coverage here