The 'Korea Professional Championship' tournament played in 1986 was created to allow summer football to be played in Korea whilst the national team competed at the Mexico World Cup, without disadvantaging those clubs missing players in the K-League.
With the 2004 Asian Cup and Olympic Games tournaments taking place at the same time, a similar tournament called the 'Samsung Hauzen Cup' was created to be played between the two stages of the K-League, and Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma took the glory. The tournament was kept for 2005 but moved to the start of the season when a host of World Cup qualifiers were due to be played.
The 2006 edition was moved back into the middle of the season between the first and second stages of the K-League season, with FC Seoul claiming the crown ahead of Seongnam. For 2007, the tournament was split into two groups of six with AFC Champions League participants Seongnam and Chunnam given byes to the playoffs.