[1] In ancient times, Silla, one of Three Kingdoms of Korea, had a ball game called "Chuk-guk" (축국; 蹴鞠).
Though Chukguk is similar to today’s football in many aspects, it features the distinctive rule that the ball should stay in the air during game play with the net also being mounted at a fixed distance above the ground.
[2] However, Koreans first saw the present version of football in 1882 when British crew members played a game while their vessel, HMS Flying Fish, was visiting the Port of Jemulpo.
Also in Seoul, many famous football clubs including unofficial national team Joseon FC were founded between the 1910s and 1920s, and they usually had a rivalry against football clubs in Pyongyang, the second biggest city in Korea.
The All Joseon Football Tournament, which had until 1932 been a tournament almost exclusively between academic institutions, included a "professional" class from 1933 which, along with the immensely popular Kyungsung–Pyongyang intercity football series, raised interest levels in the sport greatly.