FC Seoul captain Ki Sung-yueng was the victim of a water bottle throw during a heated match.
Seoul hosted Incheon United in the 12th round of the Hana Bank K League 1 2024 on Nov. 11 at the Incheon Football Stadium. After conceding an early goal in the first half, Seoul came back to win 2-1 in the second half thanks to a multi-goal performance from Willian.
The game was a fierce clash of rivalries between Seoul and Incheon, who are bound together by the Gyeongin Derby. In the last minute of the first half, Choi Joon and Jerso got tangled up in a nervous tussle, even when they weren’t in the box, and it got even more heated when Jerso was sent off for a direct challenge on Choi Joon.
In the second half, both teams continued to play rough, and some spectators became unruly after the game. Incheon supporters threw dozens of water bottles at Seoul goalkeeper Baek Jong-beom. This was because he turned around and did a victory celebration after the final whistle.
The enraged Incheon fans almost injured Ki Sung-yueng when they threw the bottles at him. He was hit with a water bottle and was in pain for a while. He lay on the ground for a long time and was only able to walk after some time with the help of the staff.
Even in this situation, the Incheon fans continued to boo and throw foreign objects, and only stopped after Kim Gun-hee, Yonichi, and other Incheon players took the initiative to calm the fans down.
Luckily, he recovered quickly. “I don’t know what his intentions were, but it’s a very dangerous behavior,” said Ki Sung-yueng in the post-match mix zone. “Throwing water bottles can hurt people. I think the KFA will make a good judgment.”
Baek Jong-beom, who started the water bottle throwing, said, “At the beginning of the second half, the opposing fans were saying something with their middle fingers and swearing at my parents, which is not a good behavior as a player, so I roared at them.” “I apologize for making the Incheon fans feel bad. I apologize for offending the Incheon fans and will make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
Throwing water bottles on the field is punishable by disciplinary action. According to the K League rules, if a fan throws a foreign object on the field, the team will be 바카라사이트 forced to play a home game without spectators, play a home game in a third region designated by the league, be fined more than 3 million won, or close the stands.
In August 2022, Daegu FC was fined 10 million won ($6,000) after a fan threw a water bottle at the referee after a match between Daegu FC and Suwon Samsung, and last year Suwon was fined 5 million won ($4,000) after fans threw plastic bottles at the referee following their relegation.
The match supervisors in Seoul and Incheon will investigate the factors that led to the bottles being thrown, whether any foreign objects other than water bottles were thrown, and evidence that Ki Sung-yueng was hit, and submit the findings to the KFA.