Pro football league to introduce Southeast Asian quota in 2020

The South Korean professional football league announced Friday it will add a new quota for players from Southeast Asia starting in the 2020 season.

The K League said clubs can now carry up to five foreign players: three regardless of their nationality, one from a member country of the Asian Football Confederation and one player from a member country of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

The ASEAN countries are Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

The K League also modified rules on suspensions following an accumulation of yellow cards,

Up until last season, players were suspended for one match for every third yellow card they picked up. Beginning in 2020, they will be slapped with a one-match ban after five yellow cards and then another one-game suspension after three additional yellow cards. Two more yellow cards after that will result in a fresh one-match suspension.

The K League also raised the minimum salary for players, from the current 20 million won to 24 million won (US$17,300 to US$20,745).

Stadiums will be able to use a "hybrid pitch," a mix of natural and artificial grass. But the league mandated that the amount of artificial surface must be less than 5 percent of the field, and the hybrid pitch must meet several quality criteria.