Can SBS ‘Kick a Goal’ win public trust back?

Local broadcaster SBS announced plans to restore viewers’ trust with a complete change of the production team for its women-led soccer show, “Kick a Goal,” Monday.

“We have decided the television directors and chief producer should first hold themselves accountable for the carelessness of tampering with some of the footage in the program. After conducting a thorough self-investigation, we have found that the order of the scores was changed on some of the episodes in ‘Kick a Goal’ season 1 and 2,” the SBS official said in a press release.

“The program that was scheduled to air Dec. 29 will be canceled to spare time for the newly assigned directors and chief producer. We wish to sincerely apologize for not meeting the expectations of viewers and inappropriately delivering the cast’s passion for soccer,” the official added.

Shortly after winning eight awards at SBS’ year-end award ceremony, “Kick a Goal” has come under fire for tampering with some of the footage in the program.

The controversy erupted on Christmas Eve, when an online post surfaced in which an online commenter alleged that the order of the scoring might have been edited by the production team to make the game look more dramatic.

According to the broadcast that aired Dec. 22, the scores of the two teams moved back and forth from 3-0, to 3-2, 4-3 and finally 6-3.

The anonymous author alleged that the actual order of the scores should have been 5-0 to 5-3 and 6-3.

SBS admitted the mistake and issued an online apology on its official website. 

Meanwhile, many viewers were disappointed after Kim Byung-ji, a Korean soccer legend and one of the soccer managers in “Kick a Goal,” offered an explanation about the controversy live on his YouTube channel Sunday.

Kim said that he was aware that the program’s footage was tampered with and believed that the editing was acceptable as long as the program was a sports “variety show.”

Though Kim countered the claim that the matches had been planned with the results already decided, he also apologized for overlooking the current controversy.

As a former soccer player, Kim’s explanation did not seem to soothe the growing public criticism from viewers.

“Kick a Goal” will take a break for one week and is scheduled to return Jan. 5.

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