K League reshuffles games to create EAFF E-1 international break

Football

Published: 26 Jun. 2022, 15:06 Updated: 26 Jun. 2022, 15:47

K League reshuffles games to create EAFF E-1 international break

Cho Gue-sung, left, and Kwon Chang-hoon celebrate after Kwon scored for the Korean national team in a game against Egypt at Seoul World Cup Stadium in western Seoul on June 14. Both Cho and Kwon play for K League 1 side Gimcheon Sangmu. [YONHAP]

The K League announced at the end of last week that it will add an additional international break to allow players to join the national team for the East Asian Football Federation (EAFF) E-1 Football Championship next month.

The ninth edition of the EAFF E-1 Football Championship, which is typically played every two or three years, will take place in Japan from July 19 to July 27. The championship, which pits one qualifying team against Korea, Japan and China in a round robin tournament, is not played during an official FIFA international break, meaning that clubs are not required to release their players to compete.

That means that Korean footballers playing overseas — like captain Son Heung-min of Tottenham Hotspur, forwards Hwang Hee-chan of Wolverhampton Wanderers and Hwang Ui-jo of Bordeaux, midfielders Lee Jae-sung of Mainz and Jeong Woo-yeong of Freiburg and defender Kim Min-jae of Fenerbahce — are likely to be in the middle of preseason training and warm-up fixtures and are unlikely to be released to join the national team.

The K League's decision to create its own international break effectively ensures that Korean national team head coach Paulo Bento has plenty of players to choose from to plug those gaps, as all K League clubs will need to release any players called up to the national team.

To allow for the break, the K League has pushed some games scheduled for July 17 a day earlier to allow players time to travel to Japan and rescheduled games from the July 22 to July 24 weekend in mid August. Games on July 29 have also been pushed back a day to allow players time to travel back.

Korea is the winningest team at the EAFF E-1 Football Championship with five of eight titles. Korea is also the reigning champion, having won the 2019 tournament. China has won the tournament twice, in 2005 and 2010, while Japan has won once in 2013. A qualifying team, which this year will be Hong Kong, has never won the tournament.

Korea will play their first game of the 2022 EAFF E-1 Football Championship against China at Kashima Stadium in Kashima, Japan on July 20.

BY JIM BULLEY [jim.bulley@joongang.co.kr]