WARNING: Potential flame war material. Viewer discretion advised.
A Japanese football columnist has penned a piece slamming Korea for its “exclusive nationalism” as seen in the World Cup, says Korean sports media OSEN.
In a column Wednesday, the Nikkan Sports‘ Nishimura Goyu wrote that Korean media reports and netizen behavior concerning referee decisions in Korea’s matches against France and Switzerland were emblematic of exclusive nationalism.
He firstly attacked the Korean media. After the match with France, when the French coach complained about a waived-off goal, the Korean media united to report that post-game griping was unsportsmanlike, yet following the Swiss match, the very same media was consistent in its complaints that Korea lost because of a doubtful call by the ref (Marmot’s note: not entirely true… some media did say that Korea didn’t play good enough to win, but yes, generally speaking, the media tone was that Korea’s got screwed).
About Korea’s netizens, Nishimura wrote that they attack foreign bodies/institutions whenever political issues like Dokdo and Japan’s history textbooks arise, and football was no different. They attacked a Korean TV commentator who took a cold, unbiased look at the offsides call in the Swiss match, and they attacked Korean forward Park Ji-sung for saying that referee decisions were part of the game (Marmot’s note: this is news to me). He also noted how they attacked the FIFA homepage based on the lie that they could force a rematch by sending FIFA 5 million protest emails.
He then claimed that during the 2002 World Cup, as Korea progressed to the semifinals, nationalism rose to a dangerous level. That nationalism turned into an atmosphere where the netizens could support an anti-Japanese, anti-American administration, he said. The reason, he explained, could be found in Korea’s understanding of history, which (he claimed) completely rejects the views of Korea’s neighbors, particularly Japan. He said the “referee decision” issue was similar to the Korea-Japan history issue and territorial issues.
He also slammed the Japanese media, asking why it was necessary for them to take Korea’s side. For example, he said NHK made no particular comment after the Korea-France match when the French goal was disallowed, but they kept showing scenes of the offsides call following the Swiss match.
He claimed after Italy’s Francesco Totti was awarded a penalty kick against Australia, another Japanese broadcaster reported that in an identical situation in Italy’s 2002 match against Korea, Totti was red-carded for taking a dive. He asked why the broadcaster didn’t report on that objectively in 2002.
In particular, he complained that the Japanese media wasn’t conveying to Japanese accurate information about Korea. He pointed out that Koreans overwhelmingly rooted for Australia during its match against Japan, and there was a big gap in views about Korea between those Japanese who knew this to be the case and those who didn’t.
Nishimura has been writing footie columns for over 10 years, but recently has been expanding his material to include political issues.
17 Comments
I like the picture.
I belive the player is Kim Namil. He is saying in Korean, “I am going to kill you. You Rat. You dirty Rat.” Others are saying, “Chill out. After the game. We will put out a contract for him”.
The soccer referees live dangerous lives.
Ah, Nishimura is famous as a right wing commentator and who is always taking a hard ass attitude against matters concerning Korea and China.
But some of his remarks in this article seems to me valid.
Correction
“who is taking” >>”he is taking”
sorry for my bad English.
Are you sure he is not one of us fellow Korean bloggers moonlighting?
Would certainly seem that way, Dam_man…
Pity it’s a ____ who penned the piece; though he has valid points he’s just a dirty ____. Wonder how much harassment he’ll face from the netizens. And that’s Korea. It’s the hillbilly family with the 9 half-wit kids at the end of the block; they’re super prickly and anyone who slights them is in for an ordeal. Every neighbor soon learns to overlook their behavior or else. There’s no reasoning with them. No apology accepted. The best that can hoped for is that someone else will run afoul and you’ll be out of their sights.
Whoa, relieved now, lil’ seouldout. Now you can wipe off all the froth and drivel from your mouth and bib, kiddo. “Buahaha, Korea and Koreans are fucking shitty! But I’ll get back at them wherever I can - in front of the PC keyboard.”
Guess you live in that house at the end of the block.
This columnist has been writing about footbal for 10 years and JUST NOTICED Korean ultranationalism? For better or worse, isn’t fierce nationalism the most defining feature of Korea?
come on now, nishimura and some of you other fellas. in the big wide world of sports, folks all over the world are nationalistic about their sports. everyone complains about the officiating against their team and doesn’t say much when the calls go in their favor. not sure why korea is singled out.
with the hundreds of arrested english and german hooligans, the ongoing real violence of football fans of other countries, what exactly bothers you about netizens?
it’s just words my brothers and sisters. well, words and downed servers. but there’s no bloodshed and broken glass here. citizens go about your business. there’s nothing to see here.
the italian elbow to one of my american players however…that one irks me a bit.
Am I the only one who has grown weary of all this “nationalistic Korean netizen” stuff? Alright, already. Can we please move on? There isn’t one new idea in this thread.
Here’s a thought: ballistic missiles make friends of us all.
I’m sure we can let it rest — until the next sporting event…
I think Korean netizens get more attention because noone else (in my memory) has crashed IOC or FIFA websites with their anger.
“Am I the only one who has grown weary of all this “nationalistic Korean netizen” stuff?”
No, you’re not the only one. Pages back, you’ll notice my post about this.
Growing tired of “all this “nationalistic Korean netizen” stuff” is about as reasonable as claiming to be growing tired of “all this jihadistic Palestinian stuff” on a site devoted to Middle Eastern matters. As long as there are endless numbers of mindlessly nationalistic Koreans making spectacles of themselves over ridiculously petty issues, the subject will be worthy of debate.
You’re comparing nationalistic netizens acting childish about a football loss to a serious issue like the century-old dispute over the land once known as Palestine? That says a lot about your worldview.
I would amend your final remark to read:
As long as there are endless numbers of mindlessly nationalistic Koreans making spectacles of themselves over ridiculously petty issues, the subject will be fodder for petty-minded expats.
“worthy of debate”
Debate? I didn’t know there was a debate about this.
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