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South Korea's women footballers threaten boycott over conditions / Photo: © AFP
NYSE - LSE
South Korea's women footballers threaten boycott over conditions
South Korea's women's football team threatened to boycott matches ahead of March's Asian Cup over "discriminatory conditions" provided by their country's football association, documents revealed Tuesday.
The Korea Professional Footballers' Association made public a joint statement that they sent with national team players to the Korea Football Association (KFA) in September last year, complaining of "poor conditions" on national team duty.
The statement said that players faced gruelling long journeys on buses and economy-class flights and were forced to stay in "inadequate" accommodation far from training grounds.
It also said that players were required to personally pay for items including airport transfers and training kit.
The statement, dated September 26, said that players would boycott games and "suspend participation in all training related to the upcoming 2026 AFC Women's Asian Cup" if the KFA did not respond by October 17.
A KFA official told AFP on Tuesday that they had been "internally reviewing step-by-step improvements and discussing the issue internally since we received the statement".
The 12-team Women's Asian Cup will be held in Australia from March 1 to 21.
South Korea have been drawn in a first-round group with Australia, Iran and the Philippines.
The players' statement said that "for many years, women's national team players have silently endured poor and unreasonable conditions, sustained solely by their pride as 'national representatives'".
It said there were "clear and undeniable differences" from the conditions enjoyed by the men's national team.
C.Nam--SG
