South Korea’s Pro Footballers Association (KPFA) has initiated a formal request to the Korean League of Baseball (KLB) to significantly alter the K League season’s schedule, a move driven by escalating local temperatures reaching record highs in August. The KPFA asserts that the current schedule’s traditional structure poses a significant threat to player well-being, particularly during the peak of summer heat. The association stated, ‘The K League must transition to the Fall-Spring schedule to protect players from the worsening climate crisis and punishing summer heat,’ emphasizing the need to maintain the league’s leadership within Asia and its global competitiveness. On August 2nd, southeastern city of Yangsan experienced a temperature of 42.5 degrees Celsius (108.5 Fahrenheit), the highest in decades of official records, prompting authorities to issue warnings to residents to stay indoors. This extreme heat also impacted Manchester City’s friendly exhibition against a K League All-Star team last week, although the Premier League club’s preseason win over Atletico Madrid drew a full crowd on Sunday. Seoul’s streak of 17 tropical nights – defined as nights with temperatures below 25 degrees Celsius (77 Fahrenheit) – ended Monday. The 2026 K League season began on February 28th and is slated for completion on December 6th, but the current climate has intensified calls to relocate the traditional schedule. The players’ association stated that changing the season timetable would also bring Asia’s oldest professional football league into alignment with Japan’s J League, which has recently begun its first season on a summer-to-spring schedule, as well as the Asian Football Confederation’s Champions League Elite, a change initiated in 2023, and most of Europe. South Korea’s severe winter remains an obstacle to this change, however, with subzero temperatures and snowfall common across the peninsula from December to February. Lee Keun-ho, the association’s president and a former South Korea international, suggested a schedule adjustment could be accommodated by a competition pause during the coldest months. ‘Players agree that enjoying a break during winter can better help them avoid injuries and maintain better physical form than having to play through multiple competitions under the scorching summer sun,’ Lee said, adding that some structural changes at venues would also help. ‘The league should set up more heating devices at stadiums and install hybrid grass for pitches, and make investments that can help the league for the long haul,’ Lee added. South Korean media published results of the union’s emergency player survey on heatwave match operations and called for stricter heat-response standards. The survey included 536 players from the professional men’s and women’s leagues in South Korea. Overall, 86.2% said the heatwave placed a physical burden on them, with 45.2% (242 players) answering ‘very much so’ and 41% (220 players) answering ‘yes’. A rugby player from Fiji died in Japan last week after being rushed to hospital with ‘symptoms consistent with severe heatstroke’ following a training session. Saimoni Vunilagi, who was 26, was admitted to hospital after team practice with Kyushu KV in the southern city of Fukuoka on Monday, but passed away on Friday. The KPFA has also stated that the union has conducted a player survey to assess the heatwave’s impact on players, indicating that 48.4% of players said current cooling breaks were sufficient, while only 15.3% said the current policies were sufficient.”]”””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””
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Source: Al Jazeera
