A total of about 30 sex dolls were placed in the stands — some of them holding signs advertising X-rated websites.
YouTubeFC Seoul claimed it had received assurances the “premium dolls” they ordered weren’t intended for sexual purposes.
The coronavirus pandemic has put all sorts of industries on pause. For South Korea, that has meant no soccer matches since the last season ended in September 2019. Fans were overjoyed at the country’s K-League returning to stadiums this month, then perplexed when they noticed the stands were filled with sex dolls.
According to The Guardian, soccer club FC Seoul has since apologized for their controversial solution to fill the empty seats. The K-League is the first major soccer league to resume matches since the pandemic, with its opening match watched by sports-starved fans around the globe.
It was during Sunday’s match against Gwangju FC that social media users noticed the “mannequins.” Intended to infuse the drably empty venue with some life, these mannequins were dotted around the stands — but were glaringly more realistic than those you’d see while window-shopping.
According to the BBC, FC Seoul official Lee Ji-hoon said they didn’t do a thorough background check on the mannequin supplier, a company called Dalcom. He explained that though the dolls looked “very human,” the fact that they were sex toys didn’t even enter his mind.
FC Seoul’s purported “misunderstanding” with Dalcom quickly became quite obvious to social media users watching the match. They even noticed that many of the dolls were holding up signs with the name of BJ Chaero, a popular adult live streamer and the purported design inspiration behind the dolls themselves.
Around 30 dolls in total were spread out among the seats, with life-sized cardboard cutouts of FC Seoul’s players strategically placed about. Unfortunately, while the bizarre misunderstanding was rather humorous to most, the club has received backlash — and appears to be genuinely saddened.
“We would like to apologize to the fans,” FC Seoul said in a statement. “We are deeply sorry. Our intention was to do something light-hearted in these difficult times. We will think hard about what we need to do to ensure that something like this never happens again.”
Dissatisfied by the team’s official explanation, online fans continue to chronicle the baffling series of decisions that led to a stadium populated by sex dolls.
TwitterSome of the dolls were carrying signs advertising x-rated websites, while others were clearly designed with sexual purposes in mind.
“There must have been a countless number of people involved in getting that approved, shipped, dressed, and seated,” one user said. “In that process, no one thought to question the visuals of these mannequins?”
The sex dolls were dressed, though many were holding signs advertising x-rated websites.
“They were supposed to take all the logos down before the game started,” said Dalcom director Cho Young-june. “But there were several hairbands and logos left to be caught by public eye.”
With a world deprived of live sports and millions virtually flocking to South Korean matches, many are embarrassed at this being their introduction to the country’s league.
“There are concerns this will bring international disgrace,” said popular South Korean website Sports Seoul.
TwitterThe club has since apologized for the “misunderstanding,” and vowed to never let this happen again.
Ultimately, the South Korean sex doll misunderstanding of 2020 serves as a welcome interruption of the fear and anxiety defining the COVID-19 pandemic. Others are naturally angered by the incident, because what should have been a harmless soccer match suddenly included sexually-charged material.
As for the rest of the world, the German Bundesliga resumed on the weekend, with neither fans nor sex dolls in the stands. The English Premiere League intends to return in mid-June, though there’s considerable pushback among officials regarding that timeframe.
In the end, the coronavirus pandemic continues to force people around the world to develop solutions for problems hitherto entirely unfamiliar. While filling a stadium with sex dolls didn’t strike all soccer fans as the light-hearted answer FC Seoul had hoped for, at least it gave others a moment of much-needed laughter.
After learning about the South Korean soccer team filling its empty stadium stands with lifelike sex dolls during the COVID-19 pandemic, read about the bizarre history of sex toys, from ancient butt plugs to steam-powered vibrators. Then, learn about the expert suggesting child sex dolls should be prescribed to pedophiles.
