South Korea’s football association has officially complained to the world body about an alleged racist remark directed at Wolverhampton Wanderers forward Hwang Hee-chan despite Italian club Como denying the accusations.
An unnamed Como player was accused of referring to Hwang as “Jackie Chan”, a popular Hong Kong movie star known for his martial arts films, during a pre-season match in Spain on Monday.
On Tuesday, Como insisted its player “did not say anything in a derogatory manner” and “the reaction of certain Wolves players has seen the incident blown out of proportion”.
The Korea Football Association (KFA) said it sent an official letter to the world body FIFA on Thursday expressing “serious concern about the racist acts suffered by Hwang Hee-chan”.
The letter asked FIFA to take action and “eradicate racism on the soccer field”, the association said on its official X account Thursday.
Earlier this week Hwang said on Instagram that the coaching staff and his teammates said they would leave the field with him “if needed” after the alleged abuse.
“Racism is intolerable in sports and in all aspects of life,” he added, with his post attracting more than 143,500 likes.
According to Como, its unnamed player said “ignore him, he thinks he’s Jackie Chan”.
The Italian Club insisted the remark was in “reference to the player’s name, and to the constant references of ‘Channy’ made by his own teammates on the pitch”.
Wolves head coach Gary O’Neil said Hwang had the full support of the Wolves group.
Hwang is not the first South Korean player to experience racist attacks while playing in European leagues.
In 2021, eight men suspected of tweeting racist abuse at Tottenham Hotspur star Son Heung-min were arrested across England and Wales.
Son said in 2022 that he faced “unimaginable” racism as a teenage footballer in Germany, and was happy to get “revenge” when South Korea knocked Germany out of the 2018 World Cup.
