Public anger mounts over SBS’ ‘Kick a Goal,’ despite apology

Though terrestrial network SBS admitted its carelessness and has apologized for tampering with some of the footage in its women-led soccer show, “Kick a Goal,” on Friday, public outrage over the program is not likely to cease any time soon as additional doubts about the show are being raised by netizens.

On Friday, the production staff of “Kick a Goal” uploaded an apology on its official website, after its most recent episode drew accusations from an anonymous writer that the timeline and scores seemed to have been edited by the producers.

“We apologize for editing the order of the broadcast footage and causing a confusion to our viewers,” the statement read.

“Though the game results and final scores are not different from what was broadcasted, the orders of the edits were different from the actual game order. The incidents were made by the carelessness of the staff. We have recognized that the integrity of sports comes before the pursuit of entertainment,” the production team said.

Despite the apology, the program has been unable to soothe growing public criticism from viewers.

“It’s really difficult to understand how an incident like this could happen, when Korean football legends, like Lee Young-pyo, Lee Chun-soo are involved in the program. Bae Sung-jae is even a sportscaster, who is broadcasting various sports events, including the Premier League,” a netizen commented on a post on the local internet community DCinside.

Responding to the growing controversy, Bae announced that he had no idea how the order of the scores were changed and that his voice was edited in the broadcast.

“I was sometimes asked by the staff members to record additional comments about the scores, plays and exclamation remarks. And I have never expected those comments were used to tamper with footage,” Bae said in a live broadcast on social media Friday.

“I should have been more responsible about what I speak. I am shocked that this kind of incident happened in my life and I am not willing to blame anyone. I am not willing to escape from taking responsibility as well,” Bae added.

An online post, which claims that the production team’s tampering of the footage is not their first mistake, is making the rounds on social media. The post alleges that the scores in the broadcast and the actual numbers on the scoreboard are different.

“According to the broadcast, the scores of the two teams changed from 2-1 to 2-2 after Saori scored a goal. But the numbers on the scoreboard were already 3-1. The game’s final score was 3-2. I can’t help but doubt about the production team,” the online post read.

“Kick a Goal,” which has topped viewership ratings among variety shows airing in the same time slot for more than six weeks, has solidified its position as the top Wednesday night program. The program won eight awards at the 2021 SBS Entertainment Awards on Dec. 18.

By Lee Si-jin (sj_lee@heraldcorp.com)