S. Korean football league treats fans with surprise online game event

SEOUL -- K-League, South Korea's professional football league that has postponed its 2020 season due to a coronavirus epidemic, treated fans with a surprise event involving actual professional players playing an online football tournament game.

To help football fans spend an exciting weekend, the domestic football league carried out an online event involving eight representatives of its teams engaging in a tournament of "FIFA Online 4," an online multiplayer soccer game, on Sunday through Afreeca TV, a local video-sharing social media. The identity of players had been kept under the veil until the end of the tournament.

A day later, K-League identified Jeon Jong-hyuk, a goalkeeper at Seongnam Football Club, as the winner. The runnerup was Gyeongnam Football Club's center-back Lee Hyung-seok.

The killing-time event has brought positive feedback from fans. "I love this! It was fun to watch actual players play a game of football online," Char, a user from South Korean online community "Clien" said. Another user nicknamed Dream of Blue Sky said: "I am grateful that K-League is actually trying to do something for fans."

K-League had 1.58 million active fans who visited stadiums in 2019. The 12-team 2020 season was put off in late February. Asian Champions League games in South Korea in March were also postponed.