“It’s not nice to hear that any team’s having to potentially boycott games or training in order to get better conditions, and I hope with them and their federation that they can come to a better agreement to improve their conditions,” she said.
South Korea are ranked 21 in the world and in the 2022 Women’s Asian Cup beat Australia 1-0 in the quarter-finals. The winning goal was scored by Ji So-Yun in the 87th minute. She is the only player mentioned by name in the team’s statement from September. The list of signatories was not made public.
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“Accordingly, veteran players, including Ji So-yun, who has played for the women’s national team for a long time and knows the reality of Korean women’s soccer better than anyone else, have decided to stop their silence and stand at the centre of change,” the statement reads.
The federation responded to the players’ association on the day of the deadline in October and some officials recently met with So-yun. But the association said that instead of progress through official dialogue, rumours about the statement were leaked to the press, including that it featured demands from Los Angeles FC player Son Heung-min for business class plane tickets.
