When a Korean player was found to have been offsides in the World Cup match against Switzerland, commentator and former football coach Cha Beom-gun said the call was a "fraud." Commentator Sin Mun-seon, however, said the referee’s judgment appeared legitimate, and the controversy continues because people consider it part of what ruined Korea’s chances of making it to the top sixteen in the 2006 World Cup. Cha became an instant star for his call, while Sin, who has twenty years of experience in football commentary, was recalled to Seoul by the broadcasting company that had hired him for the event.
One online commentator called Sin a "traitor" for making a comment "disadvantageous" to Korea, and the witch hunt atmosphere quickly snowballed. Sin’s broadcasting company, SBS, blocked his commentary and told him to return to Seoul.
The controversy continues to miss the entire point. Even Korea’s best experts in the field of football are unable to agree on whether the player was offsides or not. A former coach who now works for the Asia Football League said, "The man who taught me what I know about football changed his mind three times" about whether there was an offsides in the play.
Commentators who have long called the shots as they saw them are agonizing over what to do. "Do we really have to pander to the sentiments of the masses?" asks one. They think it was irrational for the broadcasting company to suddenly recall Sin him back to Korea just because he said something that offended young people around the country.
The strong public support and other aspects of Korea’s "cheering culture" set an example for the world. However, excessive patriotism sometimes leads to a lack of logic and composure. Following Korea’s match against Switzerland, Park Ji-sung, one of the Korean team’s top players, said "judgments are judgments." It is unfortunate that a broadcasting company has to fire someone because it is too obsessed with the daily ratings.
[Editorial] Offsides judgement controversy shows downside of patriotism |
