Expat Sunday and Saturday soccer leagues are set to start their seasons this week and next.

In the Seoul Saturday Soccer League, which starts this weekend, current two-time champions Falcons take on the Outkasts, while last season’s Division 2 winners Yaletown Riot begin their top division campaign against the Seoul Villans.

SSSL, which started with just four teams in 2005, now boasts 16 across two divisions. Marc Harrison, the league secretary and captain of Seoul International Soccer Club, one of the league’s founding teams, credits Jacques Bastien, league president and manager of SISC, for the success of the league.

“SISC was founded in 1983 and Jacques has been around for most of that time. He is the league’s main organizer, arranging fixtures and acting as a link between current teams and is usually the first contact for new teams,” Harrison told The Korea Herald.

The growth of SSSL has seen the recent formation of a League Cup, a knock-out tournament that lets all the teams from both divisions of the league get together at the same time. Teams from SSSL are also regular participants in the continental championship in Manila each year, as well as domestic tournaments such as TBS World Cup and the Ulsan Cup.

Harrison stresses that the league is open to anyone.

“Teams in SSSL are not only linked by their (sponsor pubs), but also nationality, university, and just a love of the game,” said the SISC captain. “The league has men and women, experienced players and rookies, young players and old.”

Team spirit and team bonding between individuals are crucial.

“Promotion to Division 1 was a reward to those players who worked hard and showed patience to stay with the club,” said Andrew Smith, the captain of last season’s Division 2 winners Yaletown Riot.

“A great sense of pride and achievement was felt among the players.”

Football is also a large part of social life for many.

“The club has enabled me to establish friendships with people from all over the world,” Smith said. “Players come and go over the years, but I still keep in contact with them and visit them in their country from time to time.”



Sunday football



In the Seoul Sunday Football League, which starts March 4, champions Inter Suwon begin their title defense by hosting Seoul Celtic, while Lokomotiv Goyang FC welcome last season’s Division 2 winners, Seoul Storm FC, to the top flight. Anyang FC and Cheongju FC begin their 2012 in Division 2 after finishing bottom of Division 1 last year, while RMT Women begin their inaugural season by taking on the Aston Phillies in Division 3.

SSFL was formed in 2001 by Darren Barber and Daniel Behrendt, who wanted a football league that was more structured and organized than the existing one, where there were no score keeping or league standing systems.

“Darren Barber from Incheon FC and I got together with St. Patrick’s FC and Peace & Love, a team made up entirely of Koreans. They invited us to a few tournaments and we would start keeping scores and standings. That’s how the league started,” said Behrendt, the co-founder and the current SSFL Chairman.

Behrendt, a former Seoul British FC player who now runs the league as the chairman, also credits Wayne Gold, Luke Simpson, Tom Koch and the co-founder Barber for the development of SSFL.

“The league had really grown by adding around 20 teams, count 20 to 30 members in each team, that’s around 500 to 600 people. I think we’ve had a great success,” Behrendt told The Korea Herald.

SSFL, along with SSSL, sends teams to the Manila tournament each year. As the biggest league of its kind in Korea, SSFL also uses professional referees from the Korean FA, and presents trophies to the winners of best goalkeeper, best defender, best playmaker, golden-boot and MVP awards every season.

Behrendt hopes that SSFL can enter a team into the Korean FA Cup in the future, although he admits that the league would have to enter an all-star team to compete.

Another main purpose of the league is to provide a platform for more social and cultural exchange.

“The point of the league is to give guys an outlet but also to promote a better culture and understanding of Korea as well as others’ living in Korea,” said the league chairman.

Richard Needham, the player-manager of Inter Suwon, agrees that football has helped him settle in Korea.

“I never expected to be in a competitive football league here, and that was one of the things I was going to miss the most about being at home in Sheffield, being able to play football on weekends,” Needham said.

Last season’s MVP, Hwang Ji-hwan of Inter Suwon, says that, as a Korean, observing foreigners play football has been a pleasant surprise because they enjoy the game, unlike Koreans who are overly-focused on winning.

Just like SSSL, while the league is competitive, having three divisions means that anybody can play. While every team in the first division has at least one former college level player, Division 3 teams consist of mostly inexperienced players. Behrendt gives the example of RMT Women, who are the latest team to enter the league and the first all-women SSFL team.

Behrendt strongly urges expats in Korea to know that there is more to life in here than teaching English and that there are lots more options for social and cultural exchange than Itaewon.

“It’s extremely important to us for people to know that there is stuff to do out there,” said Behrendt.

“We’re always looking for new players and new teams regardless of skill level. There are guys that have been involved in this league for 12 years. That shows a lot about how the development network is not just about football, but also about life in Korea. That’s a great offering as well.”

For more information on joining a league, go to www.seoulsaturdaysoccerleague.com for SSSL or www.leaguelineup.com/ssflkorea for SSFL and contact an executive.


By John Lee
(jlee17@heraldcorp.com)