Wolves cancel Korea tour after promoter reneges on deal

Hwang Hee-chan [AP/YONHAP]

Wolverhampton Wanderers have been forced to pull out of a preseason tour in Korea after local organizers failed to meet their contractual financial and logistical obligations, the club announced Thursday.

“With great regret, Wolves can confirm that it has been forced to withdraw from its pre-season fixtures and tour to South Korea next month,” Wolverhampton said in a statement Wednesday. “The withdrawal from the scheduled matches, which were set to take place at the end of July, comes after numerous financial and logistical obligations were not met by the tour’s promoter, Stadium X/USG.”

Wolves had been set to travel to Korea as part of the Korea Tour 2023, a new preseason exhibition series organized by Stadium X and Untouchable Sport Group.

Scottish domestic treble winners Celtic and Europa League finalists Roma were also scheduled to take part in the tour. As of press time Thursday, neither club has officially announced that they are withdrawing.

A representative of Stadium X and Untouchable Sport Group denied that the Korea Tour was facing financial difficulties, telling the Korea JoongAng Daily Thursday that the agencies rely on a number of investors to fund the tour and they are confident they have secured the necessary funding.

For Wolverhampton, the lack of clear funding this close to the start of the tour was too much of a risk.

“I feel incredibly disappointed that we’re not going to be able to fulfil the commitments that we made in South Korea this summer, not only for our partners and suppliers, but, of course for [Hwang] Hee-chan and all of our fans,” Wolves General Manager for Marketing and Commercial Growth Russell Jones was quoted as saying in a statement released by the club.

“We are absolutely gutted to not be going to Korea. We’re all devastated because we had so many different things planned for supporters that we’re now not going to be able to fulfil.”

Wolves had been set to jet into Korea for roughly 10 days at the end of July where the club planned a wide range of events to connect with Korean fans alongside scheduled games against Celtic and Roma.

“The tour was brought to us by a well-respected and established group, so it gave us confidence that this would be a really exciting tour and at no point whatsoever did we think we’d be in the position we are right now,” Jones said.

“Of course, this decision is a big blow to the club from a commercial perspective, but I am fully aware of the most important reason for pre-season, which is the preparation for another important Premier League campaign.

“Because of this, we have to move on quickly from this disappointment. We have to adapt and will find a European solution to ensure the best possible preparation.”

Despite being forced to cancel the preseason tour, sources at the club told the Korea JoongAng Daily that Wolves remains committed to the Korean market and will explore other options to connect with fans here — possibly even within the summer Premier League break.

“We wanted to give our fans in Korea — both those who exist currently, and hopefully lots of new fans — an amazing opportunity to meet the players and take part in different events and activities which we have been arranging,” Jones said.

“We already had a lot prepared and planned for our fans in Korea and we were really looking forwards to meeting them. This is why we’ve allowed this situation to play out as long as we have, but we have now reached the point where we’ve had to make the very difficult decision to source alternative plans for this summer.”

BY JIM BULLEY [jim.bulley@joongang.co.kr]