South Korea’s women footballers threaten to boycott matches, training ahead of Asian Cup
Team complained of ‘clear and undeniable differences’ from the conditions enjoyed by the men’s national players when on international duty
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 said on Tuesday that they had been “internally reviewing step-by-step improvements and discussing the issue internally since we received the statement”.