Association football in North Korea is governed by the DPR Korea Football Association (KFA), which was established in 1945. While football is the most popular sport in the country, the state's secrecy makes it difficult to accurately determine things such as attendances and popularity for club matches.
The KFA oversees the North Korea national football team, the North Korea women's national football team and the North Korean football league system, including the DPR Korea League. The body became an AFC affiliate in 1954 and a FIFA affiliate in 1958. Its chairman is Mun Jae Chol.
The DPR Korea League is the highest league in the Korean football league system. Below it comes the DPR K-League 2 and the Amateur DPR K-League 3. The DPR Korea League consists of three leagues which are played at different times of the year.
Prior to 2017, the DPR Korea League winners were not eligible for any Asian Football Confederation club competition.
Since 2017, the top 2 clubs in the DPR Korea League compete in the AFC Cup.
The main cup competition is the DPR Korean Cup, sometimes known as the Open Cup. It replaced the Republican Championship.
Other competitions held include the Man'gyŏngdae Prize, Osandŏk Prize, Paektusan Prize and the Poch'ŏnbo Torch Prize.
The North Korea national football team is ranked 112th in the world by the FIFA, as of November 2022.[1] They consist of North Koreans and Chongryon-affiliated Koreans born in Japan. In 1966, the team managed to make up for a 3–0 loss to the Soviet Union in the first match of the group stages to qualify for the next round in second. In the group stage of the 1966 World Cup, North Korea surprisingly beat Italy 1–0 in the group stage to clinch the second place, thus qualifying for the quarter-finals.[2] Whilst there, Korea DPR lost 5–3 to Portugal thanks to four goals from Eusébio, after being 3–0 up on 25 minutes.[3] In 2010, the North Korea team failed to get past the group stages, finishing bottom of the group and losing all three matches.[4] Subsequently, the team also failed to qualify for the 2014 or 2018 FIFA World Cup.
Unlike the men's team, the women's squad consists entirely of North Korea-born Koreans. It is much more successful than its male counterpart, reaching the quarter-finals of the FIFA Women's World Cup in 2007[5] and winning the AFC Women's Asian Cup in 2008.[6] They were also disqualified for the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup, due to using illegal drugs. The team is ranked 9th in the World by the FIFA, as of December 2023.[7]
North Korea has a distinguished record in youth football, in particularly Asia. North Korea has been a major football youth power in the continent, having won the AFC U-16 Championship twice and AFC U-19 Championship three times. It is also a frequent participant in the Asian Games, winning one gold medal, and has participated in every editions of the AFC U-23 Championship. The team also participated in the Summer Olympics.
| Stadium | Capacity | Club | City | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 114,000 | April 25 (for international club matches) National team (very rarely used) | Second largest stadium in the world. | |||
| 50,000 | P'yŏngyang | Largest league use stadium in North Korea. |