A South Korean football team is very sorry for accidentally using what fans say are sex dolls to fill the stadium stands left empty by the coronavirus pandemic.
Because fans were barred from attending an FC Seoul match on Sunday, mannequins were set up in some seats, the Guardian reported. But a few social media users quickly pointed out that the mannequins sure looked like sex dolls — and that some were holding signs advertising what the BBC called “X-rated websites.”
“The female mannequin dressed in a white short sleeve T-shirt, the breast excessively stood out, and the nipples were protruding, but you didn’t know they were an adult product?” one fan wrote on Instagram, according to CNN. “You are kidding me.”
FC Seoul has insisted it was all a big mistake and that the mannequins are not meant to be used in sex, the New York Times reported. But their supplier does, in fact, manufacture sex dolls.
In an Instagram statement, the team said it was “deeply sorry.”
“Our intention was to do something light-hearted in these difficult times,” the team added in Korean, according to a Guardian translation. “We will think hard about what we need to do to ensure that something like this never happens again.”
The coronavirus pandemic has forced sports leagues around the world to close events off to fans or cease playing altogether. Germany’s Bundesliga became the first major European league to start playing again this weekend inside empty stadiums, while the British Premier League has delayed its matches until at least mid-June. France’s 2019-2020 soccer season has been cancelled entirely.
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has, meanwhile, called for his country’s teams to start playing again — and claimed, without evidence, that soccer players wouldn’t die from the coronavirus.
“Footballers, if infected with the virus, have a small chance of dying,” Bolonsaro said. “That’s because of their physical state, because they are athletes.”
However, thanks to South Korea’s aggressive attempts to curb the spread of COVID-19, its soccer league was able to start playing matches in early May — with no cheering fans and coaches in face masks.
Cover: A South Korean professional soccer club has apologized after being accused of putting sex dolls in empty stands during a match Sunday in Seoul. (Photo: Ryu Young-suk/Yonhap via AP)
