South Korea’s professional football clubs will be allowed to bring in up to five foreign players starting next year. 

The K League, the nation's professional football league, convened a meeting of its board of directors on Thursday and decided to add a “Southeast Asia” quota starting from 2020.

Under the current rule, each club can have four foreign players but at least one must be from an Asian Football Confederation(AFC) nation.

With the Southeast Asia quota, South Korean football clubs will be allowed to bring in players from member countries of the ASEAN Football Federation(AFF) who are also members of the
AFC. These countries include Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Myanmar, Vietnam, the Philippines, Singapore, Laos, Cambodia and Brunei.

Nguyen Cong Phuong of Vietnam, who plays for Incheon United, is currently the only Southeast Asian player in the top-flight K League One.