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Soccer team fills up stands with sex dolls holding porn ads instead of mannequins after mixup, issues apology

The club ordered fashion mannequins from a supplier as inanimate substitutes of cheering fans amid pandemic
UPDATED MAY 18, 2020
(Getty Images)
(Getty Images)

A professional soccer club in South Korea was forced to issue an apology after the 'mannequins' they were supposed to use instead of a live audience at a game over the weekend, amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, turned out to be sex dolls instead.

Although soccer games were allowed to resume in Seoul, after a prolonged break due to the health crisis, it had to follow strict guidelines. One of the most important rules issued by the government of the country was that the games be played with no audience in the stands. As a result, K-League club FC Seoul ordered fashion mannequins from a supplier as inanimate substitutes of cheering fans.

However, although the soccer team has insisted that they ordered "premium mannequins" from a supplier, many fans noticed in photographs from the game that the stands were dotted with sex dolls instead. “There must have been a countless number of people involved in getting that approved, shipped, dressed, and seated,” South Korean social media platform Koreaboo quoted one as saying. “In that process, no one thought to question the visuals of these mannequins?”

Another fan pointed out, "FC Seoul put these mannequin supporters in stands which were also tried by Dinamo Brest." A third fan said, "Seriously, though. Imagine the thought process involved in filling your stadium with female sex dolls in soccer kits and thinking it's a good idea. Nice one, @FCSeoul."

Later, the team authorities did admit that they had placed the order of the mannequins with a sex toy manufacturer and that the order had been altered after a “misunderstanding." There were 30 mannequins — 28 of them female, and two males. Not only did the mannequins look more like sex toys, but some of them were also seen holding up advertisements for x-rated websites.

Incidentally, pornography is banned in South Korea. Dalcom, the company which was in charge of ordering the mannequins on behalf of the soccer team, said that the manufacturer wanted to take pictures of the mannequins on the stands before the game. "They were supposed to take all the logos down before the game started," Dalcom director Cho Young-june told the BBC. "But there were several hairbands and logos left to be caught by public eye."

The Mannequins' manufacturer told the BBC they had apologized to FC Seoul, still maintaining that the dolls were "premium mannequins". FC Seoul official Lee Ji-hoon told the publication that they failed to do a background check on Dalcom, and hence had no idea that the company worked with manufacturers in the sex industry. He added that since the dolls looked "very human," it did not even enter his mind that they could be sex toys. 

“We would like to apologize to the fans,” FC Seoul said in a statement on Instagram. “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.”

South Korea’s K-League became the first soccer league to hold matches earlier in May post-resumption and it gained worldwide traction from sports lovers. The Sports Seoul website said that “there are concerns this will bring international disgrace" as K-League matches are not being followed by an international fanbase.

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