South Korea’s women footballers threaten boycott over ‘discriminatory conditions’

SEOUL – 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 on Jan 20.

The Korea Professional Footballers’ Association made public a joint statement that it sent with national team players to the Korea Football Association (KFA) in September 2025, 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 kits.

The statement, dated Sept 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 Oct 17.

A KFA official told AFP on Jan 20 that the association had been “internally reviewing step-by-step improvements and discussing the issue internally since we received the statement”.

The 12-team Women’s Asian Cup will be held in Australia from March 1 to March 21.

South Korea have been drawn in a first-round group with Australia, Iran and the Philippines.

The players’ statement said that “for many years, women’s national team players have silently endured poor and unreasonable conditions, sustained solely by their pride as ‘national representatives’”.

It said there were “clear and undeniable differences” from the conditions enjoyed by the men’s national team. AFP

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