The British Influence On Korean Football

-by Mark Trevena-

The English invented it, the Brazilians perfected it – or so the popular saying goes. The modern sport of football as we know it today was shaped in the public schools of England during the late 19th Century, from where it was exported around the world and grew into the cultural phenomenon it is today.

Football arrived across the water from Korea in Japan in 1873 through a British naval commander stationed in Tokyo. Teaching at the naval academy in the city, the commander would hold impromptu kickabouts with students during break-times and from there the sport spread slowly through other educational institutions. Nine years later football arrived in Korea in similar circumstances, as the British navy warship Flying Fish docked at the port area of Jemulpo. Taking time off from on board the ship against the advice of their superiors, the sailors disembarked and began playing games on the harbourside, taking time out to teach the basic rules to onlooking locals and involving them in games. Departing Jemulpo the sailors left a ball behind which was said to have been picked up and used by a group of schoolchildren, and slowly the game started to spread through the peninsula.

The game became particularly popular in Korean schools around the turn of the century, but whilst the domestic leagues and international sides of England and Scotland were flourishing, football remained little more than an extracurricular activity for students and the Korean military during the early part of the 20th century. Football was particularly enjoyed in the foreign language schools of Korea, where games were played at army yards under the observation of British military sports coaches. The rules of the game as adopted by the English Football Association first formally entered the country via China in 1912, as a returning student from Shanghai brought with him a translated copy of the rulebook and thus introduced a more standardized format to the game, similar to that being played throughout the world.

The creation of the Joseon Football Association in 1933 led to the establishment of several prominent club sides on the peninsula as Korean football began to enter a different form. The All Joseon Football Championship, which had until 1932 been a tournament almost exclusively between academic institutions, included a ‘professional' class from 1933 which, along with the immensely popular Kyungsung (now Seoul)-Pyongyang inter-city football series, raised interest levels in the sport greatly.

Korea finally joined the ranks of international football sides in 1948 after the creation of the Korean Football Association and the football team took their place at the London Olympics. Playing their first full international match at Dulwich Hamlet's Champion Hill stadium, the Koreans defeated Mexico 5-3 to progress to the quarter-final round at Selhurst Park, home of Crystal Palace. A disastrous 12-0 defeat to Sweden sent Korea back home but the experience was to stand them in good stead for their development as a footballing nation.

As football on the peninsula grew so did participation in the domestic competitions spread. The Amateur Adult Football Conference attracted new company sides year on year and the President's Cup became a hotly-contested tournament. The national team tasted success at the 1956 and 1960 Asian Cup tournaments, but as the 1960s wore on they became frustrated in their attempts to qualify for the World Cup, having managed it only once previously in 1954. In an effort to raise the standard of football in Korea, the national team sought to play friendlies against strong European and South American club sides as the 1960s drew to a close, and in 1967 the British amateur touring select side Middlesex Wanderers, a select side of lower-league and amateur footballers with a history of touring the world and playing friendly matches in many different locations, visited the peninsula. The Wanderers, founded in 1905 as a touring side "promoting good fellowship among the football and other sporting organizations throughout the world", had previously visited such places as Thailand, Spain, France and South Africa in their long history and arrived in Korea in June of that year and left with a 2-1 victory over Korea at the Hochang Stadium.

Several South American club teams visited at the end of the 1960s and 1970, and in 1971 Scottish top division club Dundee United became the first British league side to arrive on the peninsula. United, who had finished 6th in the league just two months earlier, arrived with a full-strength side to play three matches against the Korean national side in July of that year. United finished the series unbeaten with two wins and a draw, though the Korean team put up a brave fight in each game. After losing 1-0 in the first match, Park Lee-chul scored twice as Korea drew 3-3 in the second game, and though Park Soo-deok grabbed a brace and Park Soo-il added another Korea went down 4-3 in the third match with Cameron, Gordon and Reid (2) netting for the Scots.

Coventry City came to Korea the following year and faced the national team in two matches, both at Dongdaemun Stadium, triumphing 2-0 and 3-0 respectively. Ernie Hunt scored both goals in the first game and then grabbed the second goal in the 3-0 win, with Bobby Graham and Dennis Mortimer netting the other counters for the English top flight outfit.
British opposition again came to Dongdaemun in 1973 when the Middlesex Wanderers returned for the second time to play two matches. Korea won the first match on 19th April 1973 by one goal from Kim Ki-hyo and then followed that up with a 3-1 win two days later, Cha Bum-keun, Park Lee-chul and Kang Tae-hyun scoring for the home side.

The Wanderers were back in Seoul in 1974 and put up a stronger showing than they did the previous year. Kim Jae-hwan and Park Lee-chul gave Korea a 2-1 win in the first match but the second game finished in a 1-1 draw. The Wanderers would visit Korea on one final occasion three years later for the 1977 President's Cup tournament, but they endured a rather tough time of things which was compounded by their 6-1 defeat by Korea. Shin Hyun-ho (3), Kim Jin-gook (2) and Cha Bum-keun scored the goals for the Korean team who would eventually lose to the Sao Paulo U21 team in the final.

The previous year another English league side, Manchester City, lined up against Korea for two matches. City had won the English League Cup four months before their visit having defeated Newcastle United 2-1 in the final and they made light work of both matches in Korea. The opener in Busan at the beginning of June saw the English side triumph 3-0 and a similar result was recorded two days later in Daegu.

In May of 1990 Arsenal had just been deposed as English champions by Liverpool, but the Gunners headed to Singapore to compete in the Caltex Cup, a competition that the Korean national team had also been invited to. The KFA were using the early months of 1990 to prepare for the forthcoming Italian World Cup, and the national team faced several club sides including top Swedish side Malmo, Paraguayans Guarani and German cracks Borussia Dortmund. The match against Arsenal ended in a 2-1 reverse with Byun Byung-ju netting for Korea.

The President's Cup competition, in which Korea crushed the Middlesex Wanderers so comfortably in 1977, had by the mid-1990s become somewhat stale and was in need of reinvigorating. The KFA relaunched and rebranded the competition as the Korea Cup in 1995, and seven other teams were invited to take part. National teams from Costa Rica, Ecuador and Zambia arrived along with club sides Rio XI, Trelleborgs and KV Mechelen. The eighth name on the list was Scottish Premier Division side Kilmarnock, who endured a rather tough time on the Korean peninsula. With six first-team regulars unavailable for the trip the Ayrshire club included a number of youngsters in their traveling squad, and secured a 2-2 draw with the Costa Rican national team in their opening match. After going down 2-1 to the Rio Select, they lined up against South Korea in the final group match at Dongdaemun Stadium. Hwang Sun-hong had put Korea ahead in the 21st minute before Kilmarnock goalkeeper Dragoje Lekovic saved a penalty kick four minutes later. Billy Findlay pegged the scores back to 1-1 from the penalty spot in the 27th minute and though Kilmarnock held out until midway through the second half, Korea’s class eventually shone through and further goals from Hwang, Yoo Sang-chul, Kim Pan-keun and Noh Sang-rae gave the home side a comfortable 5-1 win.

For the Korean national team, and Korean football as a whole, 2002 was to prove a watershed year in so many ways. With the biggest football show on earth arriving in June of that year, Guus Hiddink's side embarked on a series of friendly matches against strong European opposition in order to better their chances of making an impact on the World Cup tournament. Just two weeks before the tournament was due to start, Berti Vogts' Scotland team arrived in Busan to face off with Korea as part of German manager's plan to rebuild a side that had failed to make the World Cup. The Koreans produced a scintillating performance against the Scots, with Lee Chun-soo opening the scoring early on to give the home team a 1-0 half-time lead. Further second half goals from Ahn Jung-hwan (2) and Yoon Jung-hwan rounded off a fantastic attacking display against the Scots, for whom Scott Dobie grabbed a consolation goal before Ahn's second strike.

After crushing Scotland, Korea flew on to Seogwipo to face England five days later. The English were harbouring hopes of a strong World Cup campaign, and fielded a near full-strength side against Korea. Michael Owen put the visitors ahead in the 26th minute but Park Ji-sung leveled six minutes after the break to secure a hugely creditable draw against a major football power.

The turn of the century saw several Korean clubs seek the British influence at domestic level too. In 2001, former Aston Villa forward Dalian Atkinson became Daejeon Citizen's first ever foreign import when he joined up at the struggling club. Atkinson's stay in Daejeon was brief to say the least, playing only three matches for Citizen and netting once against Ulsan, before making a mid-season switch to Cheonbuk Hyundai Motors. For Cheonbuk, Atkinson made a total of five appearances before his Korean experience came to an end at the close of the year.

The biggest British revolution in the K-League occurred in Busan when the club appointed globetrotting Scottish manager Ian Porterfield to the top job. Porterfield immediately brought in former Aberdeen striker Drew Jarvie as assistant manager and began the process of rebuilding the struggling club. By the summer transfer window Porterfield had swooped to add two English forwards to his squad, former England U-21 international Jamie Cureton and Andy Cooke from Stoke City. As well as those playing imports, Rotherham United goalkeeping coach Graham Brown linked up with Busan during the English close-season to work with the developing goalkeepers in the Busan squad. Cureton's stay in Korea was a short one, staying for only six months but featuring in 21 matches before heading back to England in January of 2004. Cooke however enjoyed much more of an impact, spending a full season and a half in Korea and netting 21 times in 49 matches.

Cooke was joined briefly at the start of 2004 by former Southampton man Chris Marsden, however the veteran midfielder played only two matches for Busan before a dispute with the club eventually led to him signing for boyhood heroes Sheffield Wednesday. In 2005 Chunnam Dragons coach Huh Jung-moo added former England U-20 international striker Richard Offiong to his squad but the youngster made only one substitute appearance for the Gwangyang side before being released from his contract.

The visit of newly-crowned Premiership champions Chelsea to Suwon in 2005 was another sign that Korean club sides were making news in the UK, and with players such as Park Ji-sung, Lee Young-pyo, Seol Ki-hyeon and Lee Dong-guk making their mark on the Premiership, Korean football may just be about to offer something of a reciprocal effect on the British game.

Full results of matches between the Korean national team and British opposition