According to the contract, the Portugal football legend had to play at least one half of the match.
Juventus FC's Cristiano Ronaldo (C) sits on the team bench prior to a friendly football match between Team K League and Juventus FC in Seoul on July 26, 2019. - Juventus tied 3-3 in a friendly with K League All-Star team in Seoul on July 26, with its players apparently fatigued from a tight schedule that had landed them in South Korea just hours before playing. (Photo by Jung Yeon-je / AFP)
South Korean football fans, unhappy with the fact that star player Cristiano Ronaldo did not take the field at all against K-League All-Stars, have decided to file a lawsuit against the organisers of the match.
According to the contract, the Portugal football legend had to play at least one half of the match. In effect, he had to spend at least 45 minutes of the match on the field against K-League All-Stars.
“Ronaldo was expected to play today, but he wasn’t fit due to muscle fatigue. I spoke to [Juventus chairman] Andrea Agnelli and Ronaldo before the game and we concluded that it’d be best to rest him,” Juventus manager Maurizio Sarri had said in a post-match press interaction.
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Despite Maurizio’s comments, the fans, who had expected and were promised a minimum of 45 minutes of Portugal superstar on the football pitch, were not happy. Ronaldo was booed, some even chanted Ronaldo’s rival Lionel Messi’s name to boo him, while others left the stadium disappointed.
Some of these fans are now in contact with a Seoul law firm Myungan to sue the organisers of the match.
“Normally in such cases the plaintiffs will be refunded the price of the tickets, but I put this under a special case since the company, through false advertising, took advantage of the football star’s fans,” a lawyer from the firm told Reuters.
“As for the mental anguish part, I’d like to say some of them are raucous fans, the real avid fans. So for them it is very painful because they love Ronaldo and want to protect him, but they can’t, given the situation.”
“For now we have two plaintiffs who sued the company, but I have been getting a lot of calls today and I assume there will be some 60,000 more,” he added.
Meanwhile, Robin Chang, Chief Executive Officer of the company which had helped organise the match, told BBC reporters, “When I went to argue with (Pavel) Nedved, the vice president of Juventus, all he said was ‘I also wish Ronaldo ran, but he doesn’t want to. Sorry, there’s nothing I can do.’ I was so frustrated”.
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