Knockout matches in the largest national football tournament canceled last week due to a World Scout Jamboree fiasco and Typhoon Khanun have been rescheduled for November.
The Korea Football Association (KFA) announced the new fixtures for the semifinals and the final for the FA Cup on Wednesday.
Both of the semifinal matches, originally set for last Wednesday, will be played on Nov. 1. Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors will take on Incheon United, and Jeju United will face Pohang Steelers, vying for a ticket to the final scheduled for Nov. 4.
The Jeonbuk-Incheon match was supposed to have been played at Jeonju World Cup Stadium in Jeonju, a central city not too far from the campsite for the World Scout Jamboree. Organizers of the jamboree event chose the football stadium as the site for the closing K-pop concert for participating Scouts, forcing the KFA to move the match to a later date.
The Jeonju stadium became available again at the last minute when the jamboree organizers decided to move the concert to Seoul World Cup Stadium due to concerns over the typhoon. By that point, however, Incheon United had already left Jeonju after spending a few days in the city to prepare for the FA Cup match.
The other semifinal match between Jeju and Pohang was canceled about 30 minutes before the kickoff last Wednesday because of strong winds caused by the approaching typhoon.
The KFA said Jeonbuk and Jeju will remain hosts of their respective matches.
The championship final will be a one-and-done affair, instead of the original two-legged setup.
The KFA said it asked the four clubs to submit their preferred dates for the matches and settled on the November fixtures following an online meeting Monday.
The teams wanted to avoid the late August-early September window because of the two international friendlies scheduled in September for the national team. According to the KFA, all four teams agreed that they would be able to field their best possible teams in early November.
Source: Yonhap News Agency