Gimcheon Sangmu FC

Since coming back up they have finished third in K League 1 in both 2024 and 2025.

Gimcheon is the football arm of the Korea Armed Forces Athletic Corps, and it fields professionals working through their compulsory two years of service. Around 15 players arrive at the start of each season and, when the service ends, go back to the clubs that hold their contracts.

The rules that follow from the military status are strict. Gimcheon cannot sign foreign players, and cannot enter Asian competition — so the third-place finishes of 2024 and 2025, which at another club would open a continental campaign, lead nowhere.

The lineage runs back to 11 January 1984 and a Sangmu football section in Seoul, though the club has moved and been renamed repeatedly since: Gwangju from 2002, Sangju from 2011, Gimcheon from 2021. The K League treats the Gwangju, Sangju and Gimcheon versions as separate legal entities rather than one continuous club.

Home is Gimcheon Stadium, 25 000 seats in a city of North Gyeongsang province, with the team in red and navy blue.