South Korea’s women’s football team threatened to boycott matches ahead of March’s Asian Cup due to «discriminatory conditions» from the country’s football association, according to documents revealed on Tuesday.
The Korea Professional Footballers’ Association released a joint statement sent to the Korea Football Association (KFA) along with national team players in September last year, complaining about «poor conditions» at the national team’s service.
The statement said players faced grueling long journeys on buses and economy class flights and were forced to stay in “inadequate” accommodation far from training grounds.
It also said players would have to pay personally for items including airport transfers and training equipment.
The statement, dated September 26, said players would boycott matches and “suspend participation in all training related to the upcoming AFC Women’s Asian Cup 2026” if the KFA did not respond by October 17.
A KFA official told AFP on Tuesday that they had “internally assessed incremental improvements and discussed the matter internally since we received the statement”.
The 12-team Women’s Asian Cup will be held in Australia from March 1 to 21.
South Korea has been drawn in the first round with Australia, Iran and the Philippines.
The players’ statement said that “the players of the women’s national team have silently endured poor and unreasonable conditions for years, supported only by their pride as ‘national representatives’”.
It said there were “clear and undeniable differences” with the conditions the men’s national team found themselves in.
Published on January 20, 2026
