It is news that a domestic friendly match will be held between Napoli of Italy’s Serie A and Mallorca of Spain’s Primera Liga. The Korea Football Association recently announced that it had received documents with this content from a sports professional consortium. Napoli, which confirmed its first Serie A championship in 33 years, is a club in which Min-jae Kim, the “monster defender” of the Korean national soccer team, is playing, and Mallorca is a club in which Lee Kang-in, the next-generation ace of Korean soccer, plays as a key member.
It means that Kim Min-jae and Lee Kang-in, who are active in the European big leagues, will face each other as enemies. This card is enough to excite soccer fans. In addition, the two players have recently been rumored to be transferring. There is a high possibility that he will move to a much bigger club this summer. It could be the last game for your current team.
The organizers have already received participation approval from the European Football Federation (UEFA), the Italian Football Association, and the Spanish Football Association. In relation to the rental of the stadium, the approval process from the Seoul/Gyeonggi Facilities Management Corporation and the local football association was also completed. As for the date and venue of the match, Seoul World Cup Stadium on the 8th of next month and Goyang Sports Complex on the 10th are likely.
There is a stumbling block. The match date set by the consortium overlaps with the K-League schedule. There are no K-League matches on June 8, but on the 10th, 3 K-League 1 and 3 K-League 2 matches are scheduled. If overseas club team matches are held먹튀검증, it is clear that K-League matches will be pushed out of the spotlight.
The problem is that they have not even received the necessary consent from the Professional Football Federation to approve the match. It can be misunderstood as clearly ignoring the K-League.
Previously, the K-League bridesmaid controversy was repeated. When Manchester United visited Korea in 2007, FC Seoul hurriedly appeared against friendly matches even during the K-League schedule. In July 2010, FC Barcelona also played an evaluation match against the K-League All-Star team. Even in the name of the K-League All-Star Game, it is evaluated that he was nothing more than a sparring partner between Barcelona and Lionel Messi.
The worst was when Juventus visited Korea in 2019, which was marked by the ‘Ronaldo No Show’ incident. All K-League star players, who were in the middle of the season at the time, were mobilized, but Ronaldo did not come out of the bench. It was the moment when the K-League and the whole of Korean football fell into a hogu.
Even when Tottenham Hotspur, which Son Heung-min belongs to, visited Korea last year, the bridesmaid controversy was not avoided. Lee Seung-woo (Suwon FC), who was selected for the Team K-League, said bitterly, “It would have been nice if the schedule had been discussed in advance, but the players will see the damage.”
No K-League players are called for this friendly match, but the schedule overlaps with the K-League. It is not that foreign club visits to Korea and K-League matches have never been held on the same day. The K-League match was also played on the same day in the friendly match between Tottenham and Sevilla held in July last year. At that time, the situation was inevitable. The K-League schedule was later adjusted as the national team was summoned to participate in the East Asian Cup. The situation is fundamentally different from this one.
The Korea Football Association is in a position to ask the organizers to supplement the incomplete documents by the 12th. This means that the consent of the professional soccer federation, which is an important party, is absolutely necessary. In the process, the K-League should not be ignored or marginalized. The K-League is not a sidekick or a protector of foreign clubs.