Jeju United Football Club (Korean:제주 유나이티드 FC) is a South Korean professional football club. The club is based in Jeju of South Korea.
Jeju United FC was founded on 17 December 1983, as Yukong Football Club, owned and financially supported by the Sunkyoung Group's subsidiary Yukong (now SK Group's SK Energy), with Seoul, Incheon, Gyeonggi as its franchise and Kokkiri (Kokkiri means elephant) as its mascot. The club has lifted the Championship on only one occasion in 1989.
A founding member of the K-League in 1983, Jeju United have undergone several hardships over the years and have struggled to make a serious impact in the Korean Professional Football League.
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. This policy was carried out due to two reasons. In 1995, Korea was under bidding for 2002 FIFA World Cup. So first reason is that KFA and K-League want to build a soccer-specific stadium in Seoul and second reason is that KFA and K-League want to spread football fever to the provinces. Three clubs based in Seoul – Yukong Kokkiri, 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; Yukong Kokkiri moved to the city of Bucheon, a satellite city of Seoul, 25 km away and became as the "Bucheon Yukong." However, Bucheon din't have a stadium, so they used Mokdong Stadium in Seoul until 2000.
Mid-way through the 1997 season the club rebranded itself as "Bucheon SK" and, at the start of the 2001 season, moved to the Bucheon Stadium.
Jeju United Football Club