WK League News

The Korea Women’s Football Federation this week released a statement pledging to investigate allegations of inappropriate and sexist comments exchanged by match officials during last Friday’s Round 22 meeting between Suwon FC and Seoul City. The incident has drawn significant attention from both local and international press, as well as on social media, in the days since the match.

During the first half of the match, Suwon FC captain and South Korea’s most capped international Ji Soyun was shown a yellow card and immediately made her way to her team’s bench, appearing highly frustrated as she communicated with the coaching staff. Referee Bae Sunyoung also approached Suwon’s bench as Ji continued to protest the yellow card. A member of Suwon’s coaching team also received a yellow card during the exchange that followed, as Ji’s teammates and contemporaries on the pitch tried to help her calm down.

An uncharacteristically angered Ji threw a water bottle down in frustration, at which point referee Bae pulled the red card out of her pocket. She had the card in her hand for a further two minutes as Suwon’s players and staff continued to remonstrate, but eventually play continued without anyone having been sent off.

After the match, Ji alleged that after she had complained to the referee about a foul by a Seoul player, Bae had made a remark to the other match officials via radio that Ji had been “sensitive” since the beginning of the match and that she “must be on her period”. Ji claims that she received the yellow card after confronting the referee for this comment.

Bae initially denied having made the remark but later admitted that it was part of a conversation “among [the match officials]”. Ahead of an investigation into the incident later this week by its Referee Evaluation Committee, the Korea Football Association acknowledged that Bae had used the expression “girls’ day”, a euphemism for menstruation, as claimed by a representative of Suwon FC. However, the KFA maintains that the word “menstruation” was not used and that referee Bae was not referring specifically to Ji Soyun when she made the remark.

In addition to investigations by the KFA and the KWFF, the Korean Sport & Olympic Committee (KSOC) yesterday announced that it will convene its gender equality committee to review the incident and develop measures to prevent such occurrences.

The Korea Pro Footballers’ Association (KPFA) has strongly condemned referee Bae’s actions, labelling her alleged remarks as sexual harassment and describing the incident as “a severe human rights violation and an abuse of power”. In a statement, the KPFA called for a ban for the referee in question, as well as for the KFA to form an emergency response committee to completely overhaul the country’s refereeing system. The players’ union also said that they will work closely with the international players’ union FIFPRO, and plans to share their concerns with the AFC and FIFA.

Ji Soyun will miss Suwon’s Round 23 match against Hwacheon tonight due to accumulated yellow cards.