Seongnam FC (Hangul: 성남 FC) is a South Korean professional football club based in Seongnam that competes in the K League 2, the second tier of South Korean football. Founded in 1989 as Ilhwa Chunma Football Club, the club has won seven national league titles, three FA Cups, three League Cups, and two AFC Champions League titles. Seongnam also placed fifth in the IFFHS Asian Clubs of the 20th century.
In 2014, the club was bought by the Seongnam City Government and was renamed as Seongnam FC.
History
Ilhwa Chunma era 1989–2013
Foundation
In 1975, Sun Myung Moon, the owner of Tongil Group, wanted to found a professional football club in South Korea. Since the Korean Super League was founded in 1983, he tried to find a club to participate in the league but Choi Soon-young, the head of Korea Football Association, ignored Moon's interest due to a religious reasons.
Nevertheless, Tongil Group prepared the foundation of a new football club since 1986 and finally obtained a license from Korea Football Association as a club based in Seoul. Tongil Group firstly considered to find the club in Honam provinces but there was objection from the local community.
Officially, the club was founded on 18 March 1989 as Ilhwa Chunma Football Club (Chunma is known in Korean culture as the winged horse that the Jade Emperor riding in heaven) and the club based in Seoul became the sixth member of the Korean Super League. The foundation ceremony was held in Sheraton Walkerhill Hotel in Seoul. Korea Football Association helped the club to form a team quickly by giving the permission to have six priority picks out of players from Honam regions in the 1989 K League draft. The club has chosen six players, including Ko Jeong-woon and signed Park Jong-hwan as the head coach. The contract with Park was a lucrative deal back then, deposit 100 million KRW with 48 million KRW as annual salary.
Early successes
The club was successful from its beginning, winning its first League Cup three years after its foundation in 1992 and winning three consecutive league titles from 1993 to 1995. In 1995, K League clubs wanted to stop the club's third consecutive title and agreed to change the league format back to two stages and the championship playoffs system; however, Ilhwa Chunma still won the title. Seongnam also won the 1995 Asian Club Championship, defeating Al-Nasr 1–0 after extra time in the final.
Cheonan Bound
The club was forced to move out from Seoul in 1996, as a part of the decentralization policy of the league, Ilhwa Chunma moved to the city of Cheonan due to the city council proposition of refurbishing the Cheonan Oryong Stadium into the football-specific stadium and building another sports complex in Baekseok-dong. The club also changed its name to Cheonan Ilhwa Chunma as a part of the policy.
By the end of 1997, Ilhwa was still a successful team. The club reached the final of the 1996–97 Asian Club Championship and the 1997 Korean FA Cup. However, from 1998, Cheonan Ilhwa Chunma went into a slump due to the core players moved out for various reasons, including Valeri Sarychev, Chunma's goalkeeper, due to K League's year-by-year gradual restriction on foreign goalkeepers' appearances.
As a result, they had recorded the bottom of the league for two consecutive seasons, in 1998 and 1999. In mid-1999, Cha Kyung-bok considered to resign voluntarily due to the poor results.
Not only the results on the field, but also the facilities of Cheonan Oryong Stadium were below the standard. On 22 August 1998, Cheonan Ilhwa Chunma had to finish the game against Jeonnam Dragons during the penalty shoot-out, after 1–1 draw in extra time. According to K League regulations back then, teams were required to decide the winner with the golden goal or the penalty shoot-out after the extra time, if the match score is level at the end of normal time. Since the field was not equipped with a floodlight system, they had to finish their games before sunset. Cheonan Ilhwa Chunma won the game by a draw.
On 21 November 1999, Cheonan Ilhwa Chunma was crowned as the winners of the 1999 Korean FA Cup by winning the final 3–0 against Jeonbuk Hyundai Dinos at Jeju Stadium.
Resettled in Seongnam
In 2000, the club moved to the Seoul satellite city of Seongnam and renamed themselves to Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma. The move worked out very well, as the rejuvenated club went on to win three consecutive K League titles from 2001 to 2003, as well as a league cup title in 2002 and an A3 Champions Cup in 2004.