Gumi Sportstoto

The semi-final of 2016 lasted about as long as it took Incheon Daekyo to score twice. Gumi Sportstoto had finished third in the WK-League regular season that year, and the play-off ended 0-2.

The club that turned up in Gumi on 29 January 2016 had already been two other clubs. It began as Chungbuk Sportstoto in North Chungcheong, moved to Daejeon in 2014 under the name Daejeon Sportstoto, and left again for Sejong at the end of 2019, becoming Sejong Sportstoto WFC.

Home was Gumi Civic Stadium, rebuilt in 1997 and holding 15,554 seated. For concerts and larger occasions the total could be pushed towards 35,000.

Yoo Young-A played here in the Gumi and Sejong years, a forward with 87 caps and 32 goals for South Korea and a place at the 2015 World Cup. The coach through the Sportstoto period was Yoon Deok-yeo, who had taken the national side to bronze at the 2014 Asian Games.

None of it started with a city. On 16 March 2011 the national lottery signed a sponsorship agreement, and a corporate semi-professional side came out of it — no army unit behind it, no police force, only the yellow and black of the company that paid for it.