The 2012 K League, officially known as Hyundai Oilbank K-League 2012, was the 30th season of the K League. It was sponsored by Hyundai Oilbank. Since this season, the K League Championship and the Korean League Cup were abolished, and K League introduced the "split system", inspired by Scottish Premier League.[1] After all 16 clubs played 30 matches each under the home and away system, they were split into the group of top eight and the group of bottom eight, playing with each other in a group again.[2]
Restricting the number of foreign players strictly to four per team, including a slot for a player from AFC countries. A team could use four foreign players on the field each game including a least one player from the AFC country.
Source: K League Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Goal difference; 3) Goals scored. (C) Champions; (R) Relegated Notes:
^Pohang Steelers finished the league in third place after qualifying for the Champions League as champions of the FA Cup. Therefore, the spot given to the third-placed team was passed to the fourth-placed team.
^Sangju Sangmu Phoenix were going to be forcibly relegated to the second division by K League Federation regardless of the results for a reason that they failed to get the club license of Asian Football Confederation. They boycotted the rest of the season from the 31st to the last matchweek after their relegation was decided.[10]
Due to the match-fixing scandal that involved 40 current and former players in the previous year, there was a massive decline in attendance the following season.[when?] The scandal continued to have an effect on the league's attendance for several seasons thereafter.