Gwangju FC earns promotion to first-division soccer league

South Korean soccer club Gwangju FC on Saturday earned a promotion to the first division K League Classic for next season.

In the second leg of the promotion playoff, Gwangju played Gyeongnam FC to a 1-1 draw on the road at Changwon Football Center in Changwon, South Gyeongsang Province, about 400 kilometers southeast of Seoul.

Gwangju got the promotion on the superior aggregate score after two matches. In the opening leg Wednesday, Gwangju had prevailed 3-1.

Gwangju has played the past two seasons in the second division K League Challenge but will be one of 12 teams in the K League Classic in 2015. Gyeongnam FC fell into the promotion playoff after finishing second from the bottom in the K League Classic in 2014, and has been relegated for the first time.

Each year, the worst K League Classic club is automatically relegated to the second division, while the K League Challenge champion earns an automatic promotion to the first division. This season, Sangju Sangmu was relegated to the K League Challenge and Daejeon Citizen moved up to the top competition.

In addition, teams ranked second, third and fourth in the K League Challenge engage in a playoff to determine who will face the second-to-worst K League Classic team in the promotion playoff.

This year, Gwangju finished fourth in the K League Challenge but defeated two successive opponents to set up the final duel against Gyeongnam.

In Saturday’s decider, Gwangju and Gyeongnam ended the first half scoreless, and then Song Su-yeong put Gyeongnam on board in the 70th minute.

Then only four minutes later, Kim Ho-nam headed in the equalizer to give Gwangju a 4-2 aggregate advantage. Gwangju then held on for the tight draw and the hard-fought promotion. (Yonhap)