Daejeon Citizen FC
Daejeon Citizen Football Club (Korean 대전 시티즌 프로축구단) is a South Korean professional football team, based in the city of Daejeon. Daejeon Citizen Football Club are famous for being the first community-club in Korea. Daejeon first entered the K League for the 1997 season, finishing 7th out of the 10 teams participating in the league that season. In spite of a limited budget, Daejeon won the 2001 Korean FA Cup. It has not achieved sustained success in the K League, historically occupying the middle and lower reaches of the standings each season. At the end of the 2013 season, Daejeon was relegated to the K League Challenge.
History
First steps into the K-League
Following the foundation of the professional football league (the Korean Super League, reorganised as the K-League in 1998) in Korea, there were few league matches held in Daejeon, and such matches that were held were played by visiting clubs. The absence of a local team in the league made it difficult for the citizens of Daejeon to identify with any particular team. However, in 1996 a plan to establish 'Daejeon Citizen' – their own local community club – was unveiled, which meant Daejeon citizens would have their own team to support in the league. Generally in Korea, 'community-club' means that the club issues shares. In the case of Daejeon, although shares weren't issued until 2005 (and the issuing of shares continued into 2006), they were already known as a 'community-club'. Daejeon was the first club that did not belong to a specific company such as one of the 'chaebols' (Samsung, LG or the like) or another major company. This has a very symbolic meaning as essentially the club is founded upon the support of the local community rather than a specific company.