Seongnam president backs owner

Shin Moon-sun, president of the football club Seongnam FC, said Thursday it is “wrong” for the country’s top football league to seek punishment for his beleaguered owner for his public criticism of officiating.

At a press conference in Seongnam, south of Seoul, Shin urged the K League to scrap its plan to hold a disciplinary hearing on Friday for team owner Lee Jae-myung.

Lee is also the mayor of Seongnam. The local government owns the football club.

Lee is facing potential penalties after writing on his Facebook page last weekend that Seongnam had often received the short end of the officiating stick this season and citing specific matches as examples.

The league office announced earlier this week that it will hold a meeting of its disciplinary committee on Friday.

On Tuesday, Lee argued that the league was threatening his constitutional freedom of expression. Shin on Thursday backed his owner.

“Mayor Lee made a general comment on the state of officiating and overall lack of transparency that has marred the sport,” Shin said. “To have him face discipline is to limit freedom of expression and is to declare that the league will be too holier-than-thou to accept criticism.”

Shin also noted that the league office, following Lee’s press conference, decided to seek penalties on entirely different grounds. At first, the league wanted to penalize him for violating rules on criticizing officials. Now, the plan is to hold Lee accountable for tarnishing the league’s image. (Yonhap)