Japan showed great interest in the Korea Football Association’s apology to the nation.
Japan’s Soccer Digest reported on the 26th that “the Korea Football Association made an unusual official apology for missing the Olympic berth.”
“We deeply apologize to the public. Our coaching staff and players did their best to participate in the 10th consecutive Olympics, but we failed to achieve our goal,” KFA said on its official website on Wednesday. “We are well aware that KFA has a general responsibility, so we apologize once again.”
“We will closely examine the future system of fostering players and leaders and the national team’s management system and find ways to improve them so that failures like today will no longer be repeated,” he stressed.
Japanese media, which reported KFA’s apology to the nation, said, “The shock of Korean soccer’s failure to advance to the Olympics caused a stir in the Korean soccer community. The aftermath is hard to fathom.”
“In the match against Indonesia, one player was sent off, and 10 players fought, but the score tied 2-2. It was overtime and the same as penalty shootout, but Korea lost after a close game,” he said. “Korea will not be able to participate in the Olympics for the first time in 40 years since the 1984 Olympics.”
Japanese media accurately explained why the KFA is currently under fire. “Coach Hwang Sun-hong is being criticized for lacking preparation at an important time ahead of the Olympic qualifying round. In addition, it is criticized that Chung Mong-gyu, president of the Korea Football Association who was involved in the appointment of Jurgen Klinsmann, is not responsible at all,” he said.
The article in question received much attention from Japanese netizens as more than 736 comments (as of 1 a.m. on July 27). The majority of the respondents said they could not understand Korea’s unique “apology culture.” One comment, which has more than 5,000 sympathy, said, “The Korean national team players and the coach gave everything to the death, why should we apologize? A competitive society where only the winner is honored is breathtaking. It is better to give credit to the hard-working players than to blame them.” 안전놀이터
Another netizen said, “In a long history, there is always a case where we don’t make mistakes. (KFA) said it would not repeat mistakes, but it is better not to say this, and there is no need to apologize. We can lose or fail because we are human beings. There is no rule to keep going to the Olympics. Let’s live with tolerance.”
Another netizen said, “The Korea Football Association’s apology can be seen as a downplaying of other Asian teams. Asian teams’ standards have improved significantly in recent years. Korea called the defeat a “failure,” but Indonesia was strong enough. It is disrespectful even to a Korean player who played well against the opponent team.”