South Korean football club FC Seoul have apologised after using sex dolls to fill their empty stadium for a match on Sunday.
The K-League resumed earlier this month following the coronavirus pandemic but fans are not permitted to watch games at stadiums.
Clubs have attempted to improve the atmosphere at their grounds with pictures of supporters and by using artificial crowd noises.
But FC Seoul inadvertently used sex dolls during their game against Gwangju FC following a ‘misunderstanding’ with their mannequin supplier.
‘We would like to apologise to our fans. We’re genuinely sorry to our fans about the installation of the mannequins at our game on May 17,’ FC Seoul said in a statement.
‘We confirmed from the start that the mannequins we installed in the stands had no relation to the adult toys, even though they do indeed resemble real humans.
‘The mannequins are manufactured by a company named Dalkom, and they informed us that the mannequins are designed for displaying apparel and fashion products. We confirmed with them on numerous occasions to make sure that the mannequins are not adult toys.
‘However, Dalkom has been distributing some of the mannequin products to another business named Soros, and in the process of return and exchange of the products between them, the installation at our stadium included some products with messages in text that are related to the adult toys.
‘That was a problem on our employees who couldn’t check every detail of everything that was installed. That is an inexcusable mistake on our part.
‘Our intention from the start was to provide even a small entertainment after it was decided that the games would be hosted behind closed doors due to coronavirus.
‘Regardless of that, we would like to apologise once again to everyone who loves and supports FC Seoul. We will be holding further discussions on how we can review potential problems in similar matters. We will put forth our due diligence to prevent such issues in the future.’
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