K League 2 offers a unique rivalry you probably never heard of. A rivalry, you are more likely to find in… London.
Every match between AFC Wimbledon and their forever foes MK Dons provokes a lot of Drama. Signs bearing the writing “Never Forgive, Never Forget” are held up in the stands, and it is not uncommon for fans to invade the pitch. This is due to the fact that MK Dons relocated from Wimbledon in 2004. AFC Wimbledon was formed by fans who wanted to bring football back to Wimbledon. They started in the English ninth tier and made it all the way to League One, the third tier.
Bucheon FC 1995 of the South Korean K League 2 present quite a similar story to AFC Wimbledon. Bucheon, a city located southwest of Seoul, was originally the home of Bucheon SK. Owned by the conglomerate SK Group, they are one of the oldest clubs in K League history, founded in 1982 as Yukong Elephants.
Back then, K League clubs didn’t stick to one city. Instead, they moved around the country and played in several cities. In 1991, the Elephants then decided to settle down in Seoul, but later moved to Bucheon due to the K League’s decentralization policy. It was implemented in an attempt to spread football nationwide before the 2002 World Cup. This rule didn’t only affect the Elephants but also forced Ilhwa Chunma (current Seongnam FC) and LG Cheetahs (current FC Seoul) to relocate to Cheonan and Anyang, respectively.
In 1996, Yukong moved to Bucheon and changed their name to Bucheon SK as their parent company Yukong changed its name to SK. During the Bucheon era, the team enjoyed success by winning two League Cup trophies in its first 5 years, but then the parent company entered a crisis.
Never Forget
2006 is the year that all Bucheon fans cannot and will not forget, as Bucheon SK shifted base to Jeju Islands and was renamed Jeju United. This came after a long conflict with Bucheon City Hall officials. It was the starting point of a year-long protest for a new Bucheon team, the demand coming from the club’s fans as well as from other fans across the country. Quite a bit of support came from Anyang fans, who lost their team to Seoul two years earlier.
The process was not easy at all. Bucheon city didn’t support the idea of having a city-owned football team initially, in addition to a financing problem. But eventually, a new football club with Bucheon’s name on it was founded in late 2007, with, interestingly, the help from SK group who provided the total of 600m won (approx. 480k USD) in three years. To celebrate the foundation, Bucheon FC invited AFC Wimbledon to Korea for a friendly match, but because of Wimbledon’s tight schedule, FC United of Manchester came to play instead. Bucheon won their first match 3-0.
They initially competed in the semi-pro K3 League. They became fully professional in 2013, the inaugural season of the K League Challenge (currently K League 2). However, due to lack of funds they never stood a chance to gain promotion. Meanwhile, Jeju United has always been a club which could aim for an AFC Champions League slot. Even in the FA Cup, they were far from each other. The ‘historic’ encounter seemed so distant.
But in the world of football, everything can happen. Jeju spent the worst season in their history last year and surprisingly, relegated after finishing the season in the last place. Since the relegation was confirmed, Bucheon fans couldn’t hide their ‘joy’. Every single K League fan was keen to see the Bucheon Ultras Group, named ‘Hermes’, using pyro against Jeju.
Although that dream went away temporarily, fans looked forward to this matchup as the newly arranged fixtures were released. Hermes posted a long but determined statement before the match on their social media, and hung banners at the stadium saying ‘Bucheon ‘Til I Die’ and more.
Matchday
The match, however, did not live up to the expectations. In the first half, Bucheon had some chances, the best one off the head of Lee Hyun-il. Besides that, most of the match went stalemate.
But, near the end of the game, it was Joo Min-kyu that made the difference. Kim Young-wook curled in from the right flank, and the Jeju striker delivered a powerful header. A VAR check did not change the referee’s call, despite claims for a foul being committed before the cross, and the goal was allowed.
Their next two encounters will be on July 12 at Jeju World Cup Stadium and September 19 at Bucheon Stadium. It is not clear if we’ll see pyro in the stadium on these days, but the atmosphere will be tense, as always.