[Initial Insight] The Correlation Between Soccer Over-Immersion and Politics

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Ji-eun] "Ghana, tonight I will tear you apart like this."

On the 28th, just before the Qatar World Cup match between Korea and Ghana, Jeong Jin-seok, the Emergency Committee Chairman of the People Power Party, posted a photo of a broken "Ghana chocolate" on his social network service (SNS) account along with this message, which sparked a storm of public criticism. Comments on articles reporting his SNS post included criticisms such as "It is disrespectful to the opposing team" and "It is racist." Perhaps aware of these criticisms, the post is no longer visible on Chairman Jeong’s SNS.

Chairman Jeong might have thought there was no problem since he humorously expressed his will to win against Ghana using Ghana chocolate. However, the issue lies in the expression "tear apart," which conveys contempt and disdain toward the opponent, and the unfortunate choice of comparing Ghana to chocolate, which can be linked to racism. In modern terms, he was so overly immersed in football that he forgot his role as a five-term National Assembly member and ruling party emergency committee chairman.

It is understandable that politicians get overly involved in football. Unlike general sports, team sports like football emphasize unity and cohesion. Especially, the World Cup, a global football competition, has the effect of uniting even the citizens watching the national team’s united performance. Therefore, when the national team performs well, it can instill national pride and positively influence government approval ratings. The 2002 Olympics, which created the "semifinal miracle," is a good example. But that was already 20 years ago. Since then, divisions and conflicts in our society have deepened to the extent that even if the Korean national team wins the World Cup, it would be difficult to bridge the gaps.

Football is just football, and it cannot fill the gaps of conflict?this fact has already been proven by politicians. On the 18th, the ruling and opposition parties held a friendly football match for the first time in 22 years. It was said to be the first since the 2000 match between the "Hannara Party team" and the "Alliance team (Democratic Party, United Liberal Democrats, and independents)." Speaker Kim Jin-pyo said, "If people see lawmakers from both sides sweating together and physically interacting, they will feel at ease," and officials from the presidential office also visited to present tangerines. Several photos captured the warm atmosphere. But that was only temporary.

About ten days later, looking at the current situation in the National Assembly, it is questionable how much the friendly football match after 22 years contributed to narrowing the gap between the ruling and opposition parties. In the budget area, confrontations between the parties continue, and like last year, the budget bill seems likely to pass well past the legal deadline this year as well. The government has already mentioned a "preliminary budget," and the major opposition party has threatened to pass a "reduced version" in response. The ruling party’s presence is overshadowed by the opposition. Although there was a dramatic agreement between the ruling and opposition parties on the Itaewon disaster state investigation, they clashed again over the position of Minister of the Interior and Safety Lee Sang-min, making the promotion of the state investigation uncertain.

Poll results showing that the politically neutral group reaches 30% also indicate that our politics fails to give hope to the people. It means that more citizens are becoming fatigued by the extreme confrontation between the ruling and opposition parties. What the people want to see are politicians from both sides cooperating and producing clear results in the National Assembly. Politics that only pretends to cooperate through event-like football matches cannot win the hearts of the people.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.