Civic group calls for Hwang Ui-jo to be banned from games

Hwang Ui-jo [Norwich City]

Civic groups and football fans are calling for the expulsion of Hwang Ui-jo, who is suspected of having filmed an illegal sex tape without his partner's consent, from the Korean national football team.

Civic Network for Justice in Sport, a Korean sports-civic group, released a statement Friday calling for Hwang to be removed from the team and prevented from entering games.

The group questioned whether Hwang deserves to represent the country when he is suspected of such serious crimes.

“[Hwang] must have self-reflection and willingly surrender his title as a national athlete or give up his entries into football games,” the group's statement reads.

Regarding Hwang’s recent play in the World Cup qualifier, the group added “It is a no-brainer to take away the national athlete title from Hwang when evidence is already firing up the allegations, regardless of the court’s ruling confirming guilt or disciplinary action being taken.”

“[The authority] should have disqualified Hwang, at least, until the situation gets resolved.”

The group demanded that the Korea Football Association (KFA) make an official public apology.

“KFA should dismiss the athletes who illegally filmed sexual encounters and who inflicted secondary damage on the victim [by sharing and watching the sex tapes],” the civic group said.

The victim's attorney, during a press briefing on Thursday, said that, “There was a statement that implied Hwang illegally shared the sex tape with his acquaintances during the questioning of the tape-leaker.”

The attorney added that the victim, who appears in the leaked sex tape, did not consent to the recording of her sexual activities. The attorney exhibited text and voice correspondence between Hwang and the victim as evidence.

Hwang, in his defense, has claimed that the video's filming was consensual.

Amid the allegations, Hwang, as a midfielder for Norwich City, scored his second goal of this season on Saturday local time.

BY PI JOO-YOUNG, LEE SOO-JUNG [lee.soojung1@joongang.co.kr]