{"id":55896,"date":"2026-06-17T13:33:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T13:33:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/55896\/"},"modified":"2026-06-17T13:33:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T13:33:10","slug":"south-korea-boycott-domestic-media-duties-pre-mexico-match","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/55896\/","title":{"rendered":"South Korea boycott domestic media duties pre-Mexico match"},"content":{"rendered":"

The former Tottenham Hotspur star was exempted from the 21-month mandatory military service required by able-bodied men, after captaining his nation to a 2018 Asian Games victory, before completing a three-week basic training programme in 2020.<\/p>\n

What happened<\/p>\n

Reports surfaced of a player-led media boycott after footage was released in which unnamed reporters could be heard ridiculing the captain’s exemption from standard military service during a pre-filmed tournament session in Guadalajara on June 7th.<\/p>\n

The footage was said to have come from broadcaster JTBC, the country’s official rights holder for the tournament.<\/p>\n

Following this, the Los Angeles FC<\/a> star was said to have declined the opportunity to speak to the media following the Taegeuk Warriors’ win<\/a> over fellow Group A side Czechia in the early hours of Saturday morning.<\/p>\n

\"HwangFOTO: Hwang In-Beom celebrates scoring against Czechia in South Korea’s opening game of 2026 World Cup – Getty Images \/ Alex Slitz<\/p>\n

The Korean Football Association released a statement on Monday addressing the situation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Korea Football Association expresses regret over the inappropriate remarks made by some media personnel during the national football team\u2019s training at the Guadalajara base camp.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith a sense of responsibility to represent South Korea<\/a> on the global stage of the World Cup<\/a>, the Taegeuk Warriors are doing their best to repay the support and expectations of the people.<\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, the recent leak of inappropriate conversations between some media officials at a training site caused great shock and disappointment to the team.\u201d<\/p>\n

The federation said they “will continue to prioritize the protection of the squad and strive to create a healthy media environment.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to local reports, the rest of the team have also refused to speak to domestic media and will only speak during official mandated FIFA interviews.<\/p>\n

What happens now?<\/p>\n

Despite this, the team are said to be united. Son was seen looking after teammates, including goalkeeper Kim Seung-gyu, treating him to a taco dinner in Guadalajara during their free time.<\/p>\n

While manager Hong Myung-bo was observed playfully interacting with talisman Lee Kang-in during training.<\/p>\n

As the team prepare for a crucial match against fellow Group A side Mexico, they will be ready with or without the backing of their domestic media, as they march onwards.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The former Tottenham Hotspur star was exempted from the 21-month mandatory military service required by able-bodied men, after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":55897,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[2813,24608,2810,11366,31,13441,6263,33,5968],"class_list":["post-55896","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-south-korea","tag-2026-fifa-world-cup","tag-czechia","tag-hong-myung-bo","tag-jtbc","tag-korea","tag-lee-kang-in","tag-son-heung-min","tag-south-korea","tag-world-cup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55896","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55896"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55896\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55897"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}