As the snow fell in Seoul at the end of last week, a number of K-League teams were getting ready to jet to warmer climes for pre-season training. Incheon United, to name just one, start a month in Guam on Monday.
Thoughts of Pacific islands may make fans left behind green with envy but the Korean soccer media has been white with shock and indignation over the past seven days. The reason for the furore was the fact that a fairly obscure European Dominoqq soccer statistics site ranked the K-League as the 54th strongest league in the world behind such powerhouses as Lebanon, Singapore and Uzbekistan.
Pointless as it is to compare international leagues, it didn’t stop the media devoting countless articles and time to such nonsense and the fact that it is the off-season only provides part of an excuse. While comparisons are futile, it is tough to resist the temptation of falling into the same trap. The K-League has plenty of problems but as global leagues go, it is fairly good – in Asian terms, “fairly” can be upgraded to “very”. Only the J-League is superior at the moment in terms of entertainment, attendances …