K League 1 2026 split after round 33: Seoul are champions with five matches left, Incheon take the last Final A place and Jeju drop to Final B

The regular phase is over and the K League 1 table has split six and six. Round 33 was six matches on Saturday, October 24, and it settled the title and the last place in the top half on the same afternoon. FC Seoul drew 1-1 with Gangwon FC at home, Ulsan HD drew 2-2 with Pohang Steelers at home, Incheon United beat Jeju SK 3-1 at home, Daejeon Hana Citizen won 2-1 at Gimcheon Sangmu, Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors drew 1-1 at FC Anyang and Gwangju FC won 3-0 at Bucheon FC 1995.

Every figure here is as of the October 24 update, 198 of the season's 228 matches. Each club has five matches left, all inside its own group, and no club can move from one group to the other. So the six clubs in Final A finish first to sixth and the six in Final B seventh to twelfth, whatever happens. Clinch numbers assume the worst case, that every rival takes maximum points from every match it has left, and a rival who can finish exactly level is counted as a threat.

Final A, in order: Seoul 67 points (20 wins, 7 draws, 6 defeats), Ulsan 51, Daejeon 49, Jeonbuk 48, Gangwon 48 and Incheon 46. Final B: Jeju 46, Anyang 43, Pohang 42, Gimcheon 34, Bucheon 32 and Gwangju 21. Incheon and Jeju finished level on 46, and the K League separates clubs level on points by goals scored first. Incheon have 43 and Jeju 39, so Incheon are sixth. This is the branch our previous piece described: Incheon beat Jeju and Daejeon avoided defeat, so Incheon go up and Jeju go down. Jeonbuk are above Gangwon on goals scored as well, 43 to 40.

Seoul are champions. Their title number was 3, and the draw with Gangwon came with Ulsan's draw against Pohang, which was one of the ways our previous piece gave. Ulsan, the last club still in the race, have 51 points and five matches left, so 66 is the most they can reach. Seoul already have 67. No other club can catch them, and every other club's title elimination number is now 0.

The top three, which this site counts as the continental places, is now a race inside Final A. Seoul are already certain of it. Ulsan need 13 more points, down from 16. At 64 the only clubs who could still be level with or above them are Seoul and Daejeon, whose ceiling is 64, which leaves Ulsan third at worst. At 63 Jeonbuk and Gangwon could join them. Daejeon have a number for the first time: 15, which means winning all five. At 64 only Seoul and Ulsan could still match them, and 13 points would leave them on 62, below the 63 that Jeonbuk and Gangwon can reach. Jeonbuk, Gangwon and Incheon have no clinch number, because Ulsan and Daejeon can both finish above their ceilings of 63, 63 and 61. Their elimination number is 5: lose all five and Seoul, Ulsan and Daejeon are certain to stay above them. Every club in Final B is out of this race.

Inside Final A, Seoul are fixed in first, and every other club can still finish anywhere from second to sixth. In Final B, Jeju, Anyang and Pohang can finish seventh to eleventh, which means none of them can finish last. Gimcheon and Bucheon can still finish anywhere from seventh to twelfth, and Gwangju from tenth to twelfth.

At the bottom, Gwangju's win at Bucheon kept the relegation race open. A defeat there would have made them certain of last place. Gwangju have 21 points and can reach 36, and their relegation elimination number stays at 2: two more defeats would leave them on 30 at most, below Bucheon's 32 and Gimcheon's 34. Gimcheon need 3 more points to be certain of finishing above Gwangju, which takes them to 37, one beyond Gwangju's ceiling. Bucheon need 5. Both numbers are the same as before round 33. This figure covers the automatic drop for last place only. The club in eleventh plays a promotion and relegation playoff against a K League 2 side, and these numbers say nothing about that.

How to read these numbers. A clinch number is the smallest further return, counted in league points, that guarantees an outcome even if every rival takes maximum points from everything it has left. A tragic number is the count of further defeats after which the outcome becomes impossible even if the club wins everything else. Zero means already settled, and no number at all means arithmetic alone cannot get there. A rival who can finish exactly level counts against a club when we decide a clinch, so our clinch can trail an official announcement by a day. Goal difference, head-to-head records and the other official tiebreakers are not part of this arithmetic. The live table, now shown in its two groups, is at, the fixtures at, the continental and relegation rules at, every club's figures at and the method at. To set results inside each group yourself, use. Club pages: Seoul, Ulsan, Daejeon, Incheon, Jeju and Gwangju.