K League has an away fan problem, and it needs to be fixed

Football in Korea is a beautiful experience. Supporters can attend games at a low cost, mingle with opposition supporters before and after matches, and drink a cheap beer in their seat on a sultry summer's night. So why do some clubs make life hard for away fans?

Seongnam FC welcomed Suwon Samsung in round 15 of the K League 2 season on Friday night. This was the clubs' second meeting of the year. The first, in April, was an absolute banger. Anyone who was there could justifiably claim the magpies deserved at least a point from the match. They trailed at the break, but bounced back to lead midway through the second half.

On 71 minutes, a bizarre series of events saw the match completely turn. A Suwon free kick was headed against the crossbar and immediately after the ball was hacked clear, three visiting players collapsed to the turf. One - Park Ji-won - was stretched off. The enduring image from that encounter was seeing several Seongnam players remonstrate with the Bluewings' support to show some respect to their injured players.

The match didn't resume initially. The referee cupped his ear and was called ashore. The big screen flashed "checking red card." A groan went up around the ground. Given a Seongnam player was carried off, the home fans were naturally concerned. A goal down and maybe a man down, too? When the referee reappeared, he awarded Suwon a penalty kick and sent off Seongnam defender Venício. Bedlam.

Suwon would eventually win in the 1st of 19 added-on minutes. It was that sort of match.

As a result, it was entirely possible revenge was on Seongnam minds when Suwon made the short trip for Memorial Day's big match. And like the first encounter, Suwon scored first, Seongnam leveled, only for Suwon to win at the death. Another cruel and undeserved blow for the hosts. Two games, 0 points from their Suwon showdowns. Bitter.

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But I'm not here to offer a match report. Something else caught my attention on Friday night. Before kick-off, a loud round of applause greeted a sign on the big screen saying away fans caught cheering in any of the home ends would be immediately ejected. We didn't have long to verify the accuracy of the threat. Brazilian maestro Paulinho opened the scoring on eight minutes and at least a dozen Suwon fans near me celebrated. Over came the security, and out went the fans. But not before several minutes of aggressive verbal exchanges and finger pointing. 

These warnings were displayed throughout the 90 minutes. It basically says away supporters in the home end will be ejected.

As the half progressed, more Suwon fans were tossed, including a teenage boy who was brazenly wearing a Suwon zippy. Per the rules, the Seongnam officials were entirely in their right to eject these supporters. As a Suwon fan, I, too, was in the home end. But I stayed quiet for the opener and the winner. These fans could have done the same. They were warned. In that sense, I have no sympathy for them.

But the bigger problem is this. Wikipedia says Tancheon holds just over 16,000 spectators. The official attendance on Friday was 8,843. Why are we ejecting fans when the stadium is 45% empty? There are people who want to watch the match but they can't because there's nowhere for them to go, even though entire blocks remain empty. I tried to buy a ticket in the away end, but the allocation was snapped up. Clearly, the same applied to my fellow supporters.

The TV cameras exposed another problem. There were seven blocks separating the home and away supporters. Seven! I arrived in Yatap three hours before kick-off. Fans were already mixing on the streets in the hot June sunshine. They took the same walk over the Tancheon River to the stadium and stood in the same lines for the food trucks. Why are there seven entire blocks needed for segregation?

When the initial away supporter allocation was sold out, more blocks could and should have been made available. What is the harm in doing this? Seongnam would bring in more money and we would have been spared the unsavory scenes in the home end in the first half. I understand there's no reason to do this if the ground was full. But it wasn't close to capacity. These extra blocks aren't cut off from the away stand, either. There are no walls or gates - just red and white tape.

It seems to me that the K League (either the league or the individual clubs) has looked at Europe and other parts of the world and decided they need to do the same. It isn't 22 men on a pitch kicking a ball around that causes violence. Korea doesn't have a problem in their stadiums. How many Suwon fans are KT Wiz fans in the KBO? How many Seongnam fans support Doosan Bears or LG Twins?  The KBO doesn't segregate fans. Why does the K League?

The response can't be; football isn't baseball. These are the same people going through the gates. By enforcing segregation through vast empty blocks, they are creating a problem that wouldn't ordinarily exist. These fans can't be trusted, and should be kept apart. Why? Because they're watching football.

Do I have a solution? Yes. The solution isn't a free-for-all. Keep one section of the stadium out of bounds for away fans because here, local fans should be able to meet and for songs and chants to develop organically. But given most K League grounds are far too big for their tenants, dedicated family zones which encourage families with split loyalties to watch a match together should be created.

Alternatively, smaller clubs should be looking to maximize revenue by opening up more seats to away fans if their own support is barely filling half the stadium.

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FC Seoul have the highest average attendance in Korea. It stands to reason they'd have a superior away following, too. Every time their away allocation goes online, fans complain that tickets were sold out in minutes. Too many supporters are being locked out of stadiums with thousands of empty seats for no good reason. When, say, Seoul travel to Suwon FC, Gangwon, and Gimcheon, there really ought to be more space available. By not doing so, you run the risk of events like Friday.

And to be clear, I'm not exonerating those Suwon fans. They knew the rules. They disobeyed them. And the punishment for doing so is ejection. As for Seongnam, one could argue they don't need to make an exception because realistically only two fixtures per season could see this arise; against Suwon and Incheon. But it isn't particularly unheard of or unique to open previously closed blocks of seats owing to demand. The stadium doesn't need reconfiguration. It simply needs to move tape from one row to another.

This was my first visit to Tancheon all year. I wonder if the threats are issued before every match, or just Friday's? If it is the latter, then presumably Seongnam officials were aware of the possibility that away fans were likely to stray into home territory. Afterall, this was Seongnam's biggest attendance since August 2019. The advanced ticket sales were noted. Their worst fears were actually realized after Lee Ki-jae's late winner. Several dozen Suwon fans identified themselves with their wild cheering but by then, it was too late.

A screengrab from the official highlights package shows a number of empty blocks in Tancheon. The fans in the shot were making their way to an exit as time ran out. Credit: K League.

Finally, whilst on the topic of away fans, another gripe I have is why, in K League 2, away fans are dumped behind the goals in a municipal stadium when the home team has hardly any support. Hwaseong FC are new to K League 2. Their total gate, so far, is 14,038 which works out at 2,005 per match. The lowest in the division. The stadium has a capacity of 35,265. Why are away fans situated behind the goals, with a running track to deal with?

Would it not make more sense to have fans closer together, instead of opening up more sections? 

It wouldn't take too much imagination to improve the stadium experience for fans and help generate some revenue for smaller clubs. Football fans don't misbehave. The league needs to trust them. As a K League admirer, I would love to spend my day writing about all the positive aspects of football here. But, sometimes, you just have to shed light on the other issues.