K League 1 Incheon United opened its own disciplinary committee related to the throwing of water bottles.
Incheon United held a disciplinary committee against a fan who caused a stir by “water bottle throwing” at the home game against FC Seoul on the 11th at 5 p.m. on the 22nd. At that time, some supporters in Incheon threw a large number of water bottles toward the ground when goalkeeper Baek Jong-beom of Seoul performed a “provocative ceremony” after the game, and created a dangerous situation, with Ki Sung-yueng hit the critical point.
Incheon, which felt serious, received a voluntary report on the dumping of water bottles by the 20th, and a total of 127 people submitted their own reports.
Officials from Incheon City Hall, outside experts in law, and the team’s board of directors attended the disciplinary committee to discuss the issue. The result of the disciplinary action is drawing keen attention because it could serve as a precedent that could serve as a standard for disciplinary action against K-League teams. The level will be carefully determined through various discussion processes. Last year, Incheon banned an indefinite number of fans who threw water bottles.
“We plan to carefully determine the level of disciplinary action. The result of disciplinary action by our team could serve as a standard for the K-League in the future,” an Incheon official said. “Disciplinary action is a disciplinary action, but we need to prevent this from happening in the future. We will consider it not only to edify water bottle throwers but also to take the lead in creating a sound fan culture in the K-League.”
Earlier, Incheon announced measures to prevent safety accidents at the club’s home games in the 2024 season and announced a plan to completely close the cheering seats (S zone) against FC Gwangju on the 25th and Ulsan HD on the 29th.
In addition, the Korea Professional Football Federation held a reward and punishment committee and said, “In accordance with Article 20 (6) of the Competition Regulations, the home team is obligated to take responsibility for maintaining safety and order in the home stadium during or before the game. In this case, unlike past cases in which a small number of people threw water bottles, dozens of people participated and threw them at the players as a group, so the issue was considered serious,” and ordered the sanctions of 20 million won and the closure of the cheering seats for five home games. 안전놀이터
“We will determine the level of disciplinary action to the extent that the club can reliably manage the fans, including volunteer activities as well as conditional indefinite ban on them,” Incheon said. “We will lay the groundwork for civil and criminal responsibility if this happens again after this disciplinary action.” The results of the disciplinary action will be announced within Sunday.