12/21/24
June 20, 2002
Italian soccer club Perugia fires South Korea's Ahn Jung-hwan for knocking out Italy.: This was posted earlier today in comments by etagloh. I thought I should post it here because I don't think there's been anything of this kind ever. Is this the ultimate in sour grapes? Would Ahn have gone back to Italy anyway? And, finally, I say, wtf?
posted by worldcup2002 to soccer at 01:18 AM - 16 comments
This behavior reminds me of an ex-friend who couldn't stand not being the center of attention. I found it amusingly ironic to hear some of their complaints steeped with terms such as "hit men" and "sitting around a table".
posted by ShinyKnows at 03:32 AM on June 20, 2002
I've also read that the sacking of Ahn was due to his comments after the game. Does anyone have a link to these comments? All of the stories just quote the Italians saying that Ahn thought Korean football was better than Italian football. Could he have been quoted out of context? i.e. Could it be that he said the attacking style they play is more exciting than the score one goal and go into a defensive shell played by Italy? or something like that without meaning to "insult" Italy?
posted by 007 at 04:13 AM on June 20, 2002
Some comments from Ahn, which seem pretty inoffensive to me. You know, the last time a Korean team beat Italy, England won the World Cup.
posted by BigCalm at 04:50 AM on June 20, 2002
Nothing offensive whatsoever in those comments by Ahn posted by BigCalm. In fact, very complimentary to Italy and Italian football. I hadn't realised the guy was only on loan to Perugia. This means they are paying his wages with a view to possibly signing him. If he can't get in the first team then I don't think it's that surprising that they decide not to take up the option to buy. Seems to me the coach is trying to make some kind of name for himself as a big patriot. All he achieves though is to give the impression of being a big twat. Bixby: I can't believe they could show a highlights programme without the Totti red card. Could it be that it was just goal highlights, like we get on the news here?
posted by squealy at 05:45 AM on June 20, 2002
Would think so, wouldn't you. Fact is, Japanese TV just won't be showing this on the news for a while at least, I suspect. And if I could chime in on the "on loan" deal, this is what you might call the Japanese/Korean way of doing sports biz. At least, I don't know of any other countries on the globe where this happens. As a J/K athlete, unless you want to go straight to Italy, for example, and try out as an unknown, you first have to sign up with a pro club in the domestic league, prove yourself, and then agree with your club to try to market yourself overseas. Once picked up, the club back home takes a serious cut of your pay for, erm, loaning you out. I don't really know if this is because the club can help with overcoming the language barrier or what, but it certainly seems like nothing but petty money grubbing to me. By the way, you notice I didn't qualify this as the J/K way of doing football biz: Ichiro Suzuki is on loan from the Orix Blue Wave Kazuhisa Ishii is on loan from the Chunichi Dragons Hideo Nomo is on loan from Chunichi also, I think, but it's been so damn long now...
posted by Bixby23 at 06:27 AM on June 20, 2002
Bixby: Euro soccer clubs do the loan thing all the time, inter- and intra-league. For instance, there's Anelka (from France), who was on loan to Liverpool during the late section of this season. He did extremely well in helping them to 2nd spot, but was ultimately not signed. (I also wonder how France would've done had he been included in the squad. Looks like his behavioral "challenges" have cost him twice this year.) Anyway, it ain't just a J/K thing. I'm sure others know of lots more deals like this.
posted by worldcup2002 at 09:31 AM on June 20, 2002
Ahn reportedly said: "Although we won on my goal, I think I should thank Italy." "I didn't play much, (but) I've learned a lot and had tough times during my two years in Italy. I think that has helped me play good matches in this World Cup." but the Perugia chairman reportedly said stuff like this: "That gentleman will never set foot in Perugia again." "He was a phenomenon only when he played against Italy. I am a nationalist and I regard such behaviour not only as an affront to Italian pride but also an offence to a country which two years ago opened its doors to him." "I have no intention of paying a salary to someone who has ruined Italian soccer." Brilliant. So, maybe they should fire the Italian national team, too, because playing catenaccio also contributed to them losing, and was "an affront to Italian pride." Well, I think that one quote sez it all.
posted by worldcup2002 at 09:45 AM on June 20, 2002
As a casual World Cup fan, I'm put off by some of the idiotic displays of nationalism associated with the sport. There should be a higher standard of sportsmanship for a world event like this, but instead there's often a win-or-else mentality. People in other countries often criticize Americans for caring more about our pro sports than international events. Personally, I'd rather engage in a harmless bit of rivalry between two North American cities. A lot of the nation-vs-nation stuff in the World Cup isn't harmless, as the riots in Mexico against Americans this week showed.
posted by rcade at 11:38 AM on June 20, 2002
This story gets dafter by the second as Panini withdraw their football stickers in protest at Italy's exit.
posted by squealy at 12:48 PM on June 20, 2002
This story gets dafter by the second as Panini withdraw their football stickers in protest at Italy's exit.
posted by squealy at 12:51 PM on June 20, 2002
I know when I played sports and rode the bench for a team, I could be accused of the same thing, when I became an opponent. And who doesn't shine if you "Know" the team, it is part of the perks. Maybe this gave Ahn a chance to be that feather in the cap...... I think he will fare well, it is a shame, yet he was not some secret weapon, it's WC.
posted by thomcatspike at 02:17 PM on June 20, 2002
Italian press reported he had already been let go well before the game. Maybe the club president was looking for press coverage of any kind.
posted by Voyageman at 03:15 PM on June 20, 2002
the chairman's comments are ludicrous, but i too remember hearing/reading(?) well before the game that ahn was likely to be let go.
posted by juv3nal at 08:07 PM on June 20, 2002
rcade: the great Liverpool manager Bill Shankly's most famous comment was: "Some people believe football is a matter of life and death. I'm very disappointed with that attitude. I can assure you it is much, much more important than that." Now, that comment may have been said with a Scots' twinkle in the eye, but sometimes it's been borne out in the worst possible way. How do I feel about this? Well, the opposite applies also: it's heartwarming to see how football is used to build communities and challenge sectarian tendencies in Africa. But even in countries where there's an insane gap between the poverty of the masses and the wealth of the stars, football represents a town's or a nation's hope. (Think of the rise of Chievo in Italy last year, from a 'minor-league' team to a UEFA Cup place.) And hope and despair are potent, potent drugs. People in other countries often criticize Americans for caring more about our pro sports than international events. I think that's a bit of a straw-man: a pissed-up riot after a college basketball game seems rather parochial to the rest of the world. By comparison, something like England-Germany last September, or England-Brazil in five hours' time, is an international event: the press is filled with the 'opposite view', and with profiles of the fans on the other side, and there's as much a sense of common desire (especially in England-Brazil, where there's a long history of respect) as mutual emnity. The World Cup has been as much about the rich products of culture-clash, especially this year, as the sense of a clash itself. As for the Italians: well, it's no worse than when they were pelted with tomatoes in 1966.
posted by etagloh at 08:19 PM on June 20, 2002
I prefer my sports to be parochial because this international stuff is taken so much more seriously. If Americans ever care about the World Cup so much that fans rally at Laguardia airport to attack stray Senegalese after a loss to that country, that'll be a sad day for sports in the U.S.
posted by rcade at 10:48 PM on June 20, 2002
Though I believe the point that Ahn was rumored to be let go anyway due to his lackluster play, I think it's a major feather in his cap that the Perugia coach credits him with ruining Italian soccer. That's a pretty darn phenomenal feat. But it's for the best. I think he would probably not be safe in Italy now, seeing as people can't exactly get their hands on the Ecuadoran ref or the FIFA organization. I thought it might also be interesting to note that match wrap-up shows in Japan, pretty much without exception, left out the Totti red card and certain other contraversial moments from the game highlights. I suspect they did this because Hidetoshi Nakata plays for Parma, and they didn't want to do anything that would antagonize Italy and, by really, really distant association, jeopardize his position on the team.