Do you remember this odd and insulting story? Park Eun-Sun is a woman playing for W-K League side Seoul Amazones. A few months ago, in a closed door meeting, six of the managers for teams in the league agreed to file a complaint with the KFA. Their complaint? That Park was possibly a man, and they wanted her banned from competition until she took a gender test. The backlash, once the story broke, was fast and furious. The general public, refreshingly, saw through the BS and saw six cowardly coaches who were attempting to get the league’s best player banned. Last week, Korea’s human rights commission, published their recommendations and ruling.
The NHRCK recommended that the six coaches be punished by the league in accordance with league rules (what those are exactly, I’m unsure of at the moment). The NHRCK judged that by openly questioning her gender, the coaches, “have definitely made Park humiliated, not only as a human being, but also as a woman.” Two of the six coaches have resigned already, the coaches from Goyang Daekyo and Suwon FMC. But the other four remain in their positions.
One would hope that this would start bringing some closure on the issue for Park Eun-Son, as she apparently has been suffering since story broke. The women’s federation attempted to arrange a meeting between Park and the six coaches, but Park refused. Her coach, Seo Jeong-Ho told the media that Park wasn’t mentally ready to forgive them, as they had not made any private attempts to contact her and ask her forgiveness. It’s possible that Park saw this move as a pure publicity stunt in an attempt to lessen the public scorn.
Park has also been struggling on the pitch as well. Her form has dropped significantly, and she is not the force she once was. Women’s national team coach Yoon Deok-Yeo decided not to call her up for the Cyprus Women’s Cup recently, and when asked why he told reporters that Park did not look like she was in good shape. Yoon said that he would call her back up once she re-gains her form and fitness.
The incident appears to have shaken Park enough that coach Seo said that he believes that she will seek a move abroad in the near future, preferring to leave Korea rather than face the coaches again.
Idiotic accusations. I mean, when you’re playing at THAT level, you’ve been gender tested before. Utterly pointless on the part of the coaches to create this scandal and controversy. Park is the victim of poor judgement by the coaches to suggest this. If they can’t beat her, they resort to means like this? Play fair and square and don’t tarnish someones life and reputation. They should be suspended for a long time so they can go and think about the harm they have inflicted upon this great football player.
Poor girl. That kind of gender abuse makes me really ashamed. Why can’t we be happy that a girl represents Korea in a sport and does well? She could have been a leader and taken the team far. I doubt that will ever happen for her now.