Korean football hits the headlines
D(r)oll stories from Seoul
South Korea’s K1 League began more than two months late on May 8, and Ulsan Hyundai, champions of Asia in 2012, have been setting the early pace. But it’s the team in sixth, FC Seoul, that have managed to make it to the headlines internationally.
For Sunday’s game against Gwangju, the Seoul World Cup Stadium which seats more than 66,000 was closed to fans because of the Coronavirus pandemic. With the evocatively named V-Girls and V-Man — they’re cheerleaders — missing and in a bid to portray more than empty stands in the backdrop to the game, the club decided to put some dressed-up dolls in the stands.
There was just a small problem. Many of them were of the adult-doll variety. While the local media worried about the country’s reputation, the club issued a grovelling apology. In an Instagram message, it said: “We would like to apologise to our fans. We’re genuinely sorry to our fans about the installation of the mannequins at our game on May 17.
“We confirmed from the start that the mannequins we installed in the stands had no relation to the adult toys, even though they do indeed resemble real humans. The mannequins are manufactured by a company named Dalkom, and they informed us that the mannequins are designed for displaying apparel and fashion products. We confirmed with them on numerous occasions to make sure that the mannequins are not adult toys.
“However, Dalkom has been distributing some of the mannequin products to another business named Soros, and in the process of return and exchange of the products between them, the installation at our stadium included some products with messages in text that are related to the adult toys.
“That was a problem on our employees who couldn’t check every detail of everything that was installed. That is an inexcusable mistake on our part.”
The New York Post’s report of the incident spoke of “dolls fully dressed but oddly shaped”. That begs the question. Aren’t real fans oddly shaped, coming in all silhouettes and sizes? And store mannequins, if that was what the club had intended to put in the stands, aren’t exactly dead ringers for Michelangelo’s David.
The dolls, for whatever purpose they were originally manufactured, were fully clothed. If we’re going to say that one type of doll or mannequin is more morally acceptable, we really are venturing down Political Correctness Gone Mad Avenue.
The pig-headedness and anti-science attitudes of idiot leaders have already killed thousands of people over the past few months. You won’t hear any apologies from them. Football teams, apparently, are held to higher moral standards.