South Korea aims to make K-League more exciting

Seoul: In a bid to increase entertainment, South Korea’s K-League is set to replace goal difference with goals scored as the first means of separating teams equal on points.

A recent meeting at the league’s headquarters in Seoul proposed the measure and it is expected to be confirmed in December and then be in place for the start of the 2016 season in February.

“When you watch a K-League game, you can see that after a team scores a goal, they often look to just protect that lead,” a K-League official was quoted as saying by domestic media. “The games can then be boring and excitement levels drop.”

The K-League may be Asia’s oldest professional league and the most successful in terms of Asian titles won but has been in a lull in recent years, not helped by the relative popularity of baseball and a massive match-fixing scandal of 2011.