Tickets for K League football games to go on sale

By Yoo Jee-ho

SEOUL, July 28 (Yonhap) -- With South Korea's professional football clubs set to welcome back fans this weekend, tickets will go on sale starting Wednesday.

The top-division K League 1 and the second-tier K League 2 will both have supporters in the stands starting with matches Saturday.

Due to the coronavirus outbreak, the opening kickoff was pushed back from Feb. 29 to May 8, and the season began without fans.

Then the government gave the green light last Friday, allowing sports teams to finally open their stadium gates. The Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) got the ball rolling last Saturday, and the K League will follow suit soon.

For both baseball and football, teams will only be permitting fans for just 10 percent of their stadium capacity for the time being.

On Saturday, Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors will host Pohang Steelers at Jeonju World Cup Stadium in Jeonju, 240 kilometers south of Seoul. Jeonbuk said 4,205 tickets will be available, and 3,000 of them will go on sale first for season ticket holders at 3 p.m. Wednesday. The rest will hit the market at 3 p.m. Thursday.

Seongnam FC will sell 1,650 tickets for Saturday's match against FC Seoul at Tancheon Sports Complex in Seongnam, just south of the capital city. Just like Jeonbuk, Seongnam will first make a portion of those tickets available to season ticket holders, starting at 10 p.m. Thursday. The rest will be available starting at 10 p.m. Friday.

Also on Saturday, Incheon United will host Gwangju FC at Incheon Football Stadium in Incheon, 40 kilometers west of Seoul.

Incheon said about 2,000 tickets will go on sale at 1 p.m. Wednesday.

For the entire league, tickets can only be purchased online with credit cards, and all box offices at stadiums will be closed. It's designed to eliminate person-to-person contact at box offices and to expedite contact tracing in case of positive COVID-19 tests.

Fans must go through temperature checks and leave their personal information, either by filling out visitor logs or scanning quick response (QR) codes. Once inside, they must sit apart from one another, even if they're traveling in a group. They'll be banned from eating and drinking alcohol at their seats.

Chanting, singing, and other cheering activities that present risks of COVID-19 infections through droplets will be prohibited.

jeeho@yna.co.kr
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