{"id":119437,"date":"2026-08-14T12:33:20","date_gmt":"2026-08-14T12:33:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/119437\/"},"modified":"2026-08-14T12:33:20","modified_gmt":"2026-08-14T12:33:20","slug":"south-korea-players-wilt-in-punishing-summer-heat-push-for-shift-in-k-league-season-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/119437\/","title":{"rendered":"South Korea players wilt in punishing summer heat, push for shift in K League season"},"content":{"rendered":"<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">South Korea\u2019s Pro Footballers Association is calling on the K League to overhaul the domestic season to avoid playing during the height of summer, as local temperatures reached record highs in August.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">\u201cThe K League must transition to the Fall-Spring schedule to protect players from the worsening climate crisis and punishing summer heat,\u201d the KPFA said in a statement this week, \u201cand to maintain the league\u2019s leadership within Asia and its global competitiveness.\u201d<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Earlier this month, the southeastern city of Yangsan recorded a temperature of 42.5 degrees Celsius (108.5 Fahrenheit), the highest in decades of official records, prompting authorities to warn residents to stay indoors. The Korean baseball league was suspended for a week because of the extreme heat.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The high temperatures also had an impact on the size of the crowd for Manchester City\u2019s friendly exhibition against a K League All Star team last week, although the Premier League club\u2019s pre-season exhibition win over Atletico Madrid attracted a full crowd on Sunday.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Seoul\u2019s streak of 17 tropical nights \u2013 defined as nights when temperatures do not fall below 25 degrees Celsius \u2013 ended on Monday.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Atletico Madrid\u0092s clash with Manchester City was sold out despite the heat. Photo: AFP\" data-qa=\"BaseImage-handleRenderImage-StyledImage\" class=\"e1gf69pb2 css-6ikqhs e445x7d0\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1786710800_423_a7ec1128-55db-489d-8d02-9878905b7def_76961bcf.jpg\" title=\"Atletico Madrid\u0092s clash with Manchester City was sold out despite the heat. Photo: AFP\"\/>Atletico Madrid\u0092s clash with Manchester City was sold out despite the heat. Photo: AFP<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The 2026 K League season started on February 28 and is scheduled to finish on December 6, but in the current climate, calls to move the traditional schedule have intensified.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"South Korea\u2019s Pro Footballers Association is calling on the K League to overhaul the domestic season to avoid&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":119438,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[13934,33947,61726,1333,61728,890,40107,171,61727,33946,61729,112,33,33810],"class_list":["post-119437","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-korea","tag-asian-football-confederation","tag-atletico-madrid","tag-champions-league-elite","tag-europe","tag-j-league","tag-japan","tag-k-league","tag-korean","tag-lee-keun-ho","tag-manchester-city","tag-pro-footballers-association","tag-seoul","tag-south-korea","tag-yangsan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119437","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119437"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119437\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/119438"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}