Full name | Jeju United Football Club 제주 유나이티드 FC |
---|---|
Founded | 1982 | , as Yukong FC
Ground | Jeju World Cup Stadium |
Capacity | 35,657 |
Owner | SK Energy |
Chairman | Koo Ja-young |
Manager | Jo Sung-hwan |
League | K League Classic |
2016 | K League Classic, 3rd |
Website | Club home page |
The Jeju United Football Club (Korean:제주 유나이티드 FC) is a South Korean professional football club. The club is based in Jeju, South Korea. In the past, the club has been known as the names Yukong Elephants Football Club and Bucheon SK.
An original member of the K League founded on 17 December 1982, the team was then called the Yukong Elephants. Yukong was owned and financially supported by the Sunkyoung Group's subsidiary, Yukong (currently SK Group's "SK Energy"), along with Seoul, Incheon, Gyeonggi as its franchise. The Kokkiri (elephant) was its mascot. The club won the league championship on only one occasion (in 1989).
At the end of 1995 the side moved from the Dongdaemun Stadium in Seoul to the Mokdong Stadium on the western edge of Seoul, as part of K-League's decentralization policy.
Three clubs based in Seoul–the Yukong Elephants, LG Cheetahs, and Ilhwa Chunma–didn't accept this policy, so the Seoul government gave an eviction order to the three clubs. However they guaranteed that if clubs built a soccer-specific stadium in Seoul, they could have a Seoul franchise and return to Seoul. As a result, the three clubs were evicted from Seoul to other cities. The Yukong Elephants moved to the city of Bucheon, a satellite city of Seoul, (25 km away). Mid-way through the 1997 season, the club re-branded itself as Bucheon SK.