The offer of amnesty has been made since last year. Most of them are from high-ranking local football associations and OB soccer players. They have continued to ask for pardon for high-ranking officials of the Korea Football Association and people with deep ties to the Korea Football Association.
The Korea Football Association also positively reviewed the amnesty. It went through the Association Sports Fair Committee meeting necessary for the procedure, and the Fair Trade Commission did not give any significant objection. The younger members of the association also did not express strong objections.
The amnesty agenda was presented by surprise at the board of directors. Most of the directors who attended the board meeting held prior to the game against Uruguay encountered the amnesty issue for the first time that day. There was no time to carefully consider, and there was not enough time to seriously discuss whether or not it was good or bad. In the end, most of the directors, except for a few, remained silent. If so, the bill was passed with implied consent.
The fact of the amnesty was announced right before the Uruguay match. The association said it was to announce it quickly, but criticism was strong that it was announced quickly to skip ahead of the game against Uruguay. The association withdrew the amnesty three days after criticism from not only football fans but also politicians. Chairman Chung Mong-gyu lowered his head, but he also defended himself for a while.
This amnesty discussion stemmed from the complacency and selfishness of the so-called soccer players. Footballers behaved as if football were their property, as if the football field was a place where they could act as they wished. There were no fans and no press in their heads. There was little discussion with the outside to find out the validity of the amnesty to gain consensus. While sneakily handling things internally, they mistakenly thought that everything would be over if they closed their eyes once. The association and footballers felt burdened by the resistance of the fans, but the warnings from several members of the National Assembly who openly expressed the origin of the concerned person would have been more frightening. In soccer, an own goal sometimes becomes an outright goal after a VAR judgment, but this amnesty announcement became a self-destructive goal after the judgment of public opinion. 안전놀이터
Soccer players should deeply reflect on themselves. Of course, it is the soccer people who play soccer, but it is the fans who give money to watch and watch soccer games. If fans don’t cheer passionately while paying their own money for soccer players’ ‘ball play’, the Korean soccer world can never be operational.
The association is recently renewing contracts with big sponsors. This is because contracts are generally made every 4 or 8 years, based on World Cup standards. Prior to the game against Uruguay, a signing ceremony was held between Kyobo Life Insurance and the association. The association’s self-destructive goal must have angered or at least offended the sponsors.
If the value of football and the status of the Football Association decline, the damage is passed on to footballers as well as players and fans. The footballers who caused the controversy over the amnesty committed a foolish act of dropping themselves into the abyss. I have seen many ugly things in my 20 years as a soccer reporter, but this time is almost the worst.