Women's Soccer Is Embattled to Controversy Over Prada at Business Seat, Asian Cup Has Increased Burden

*This content was translated by AI.

The Korean women's national soccer team will compete in the 2026 Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Women's Asian Cup. The tournament held in India four years ago was a hot topic for advancing to the finals for the first time ever, but this time, the burden has increased due to a series of out-of-game controversies ahead of the tournament.

The women's national team, led by head coach Shin Sang-woo, was called up at Korea Football Park on the 15th to conduct training, left the country on the 19th, and is currently continuing its last soaking in Australia. South Korea, which belongs to Group A in the group league, will play its first match against Iran on the 2nd of next month, followed by the Philippines on the 5th and Australia on the 8th. South Korea is ranked 21st in the FIFA rankings, the second highest in the group after Australia (15th). The Philippines ranked 41st and Iran 68th, showing a wide gap.

Twelve teams will participate in the finals to determine the winning team with a quarter-final tournament. Four teams will be divided into three groups, and two teams with good performance among the first and second places in each group will also head to the tournament. It seems easy to advance to the quarterfinals, but the problem is that you will eventually meet strong teams.

Strong teams with higher FIFA rankings than South Korea, including Japan (8th), North Korea (9th), Australia, and China (17th), will all participate in this tournament. North Korea did not participate in the 2022 tournament, and also followed the match luck of meeting Australia and the Philippines in turn in the tournament, making it the first time in history to advance to the finals. However, it is unclear whether Korea will follow Daejin-woon in this competition as well.

The problem is that if the performance or results of this tournament are not good, the "backstorm" will be very strong. In fact, it was true that women's soccer had relatively little pressure on performance as fans were less interested and the environment was poor. It was in the same context that there was more applause for the first-ever finals performance than criticism or regret over the failure to win at the 2022 tournament.

However, various controversies ahead of the tournament have raised interest in women's soccer to a "negative meaning." The starting point was that some players of the women's national team demanded in a statement to improve the differential rules from the men's national team, including providing business seats. At the time, the players made such demands to the Korea Football Association, signaling a "boycott" of the tournament, including the Asian Cup, and eventually several foreign media reports followed.

However, there were many criticisms among fans that it was an excessive demand considering the performance of the women's national team and the marketability that was clearly different from men's soccer. After consultation with the players, the Korea Football Association decided to provide business seats to the women's national team only for international competition finals such as the World Cup finals and AFC official tournaments such as the Asian Cup. In fact, he accepted the demands of the players, saying that he would also establish standards for a sustainable structure of support system so that they could perform well with pride in the Taegeuk mark.

Meanwhile, veteran Cho So-hyun (38, Halifax)'s social media post, which played 156 A matches, simply added fuel to the controversy surrounding the women's national soccer team. The news that the Chinese women's national team will wear Prada uniforms, a luxury brand, was linked to SNS and wrote, "Does Korea not have such a thing?" With public opinion already poor due to demands for business seats, it had to be seen as if they were asking for luxury uniforms. Even after the controversy grew, Cho So-hyun did not give any explanation. Only the aftermath is directed at the junior players of the national team ahead of the tournament.

Naturally, the women's national team, which will participate in this Asian Cup, has no choice but to participate in the tournament with more pressure than ever. If the performance or performance is not good, criticism will inevitably pour out to the women's national team and the entire women's soccer team, coupled with the previous controversies. Reversing critical public opinion has no choice but to prove on the ground, whether it is an impressive performance or an impressive performance. However, it is true that it is not easy to expect a turnaround considering the performance so far and the objective difference in power with other teams such as Japan and North Korea.

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*This content was translated by AI.