Photos show South Korean team after elimination from 2014 World Cup, not 'Asian Cup in 2024'
- Published on February 14, 2024 at 09:00
- 4 min read
- By SHIM Kyu-Seok, AFP South Korea
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"The national team did their best," reads the Korean-language caption alongside two photos shared on Facebook here on February 8, 2024.
One of the photos shows sweets being tossed at the players, while the other shows a banner that reads, "South Korean football is dead! We lost because of you."
Text added to the image reads, "Why do these protesters do this, I can't understand. Isn't it brilliant enough that the national team, with stalwart determination, went to extra time twice and won?
"Sport isn't something where you can win all the time. I applaud the players."
It was shared one day after South Korea lost 2-0 to Jordan in the semi-finals of the Asian Cup in Qatar. South Korean media branded the loss, to a side ranked 64 places below them in the world, as "shameful" and "humiliating".
Coach Jurgen Klinsmann was left clinging precariously to his job after the defeat, which fans and local media said was just the latest example of questionable tactics and team selections.
The former German international -- who insisted he would not resign -- was filmed by local media being pelted with sweets by a disgruntled fan as he returned with his players to Incheon International Airport on February 9, 2024 (archived link).
But the photos that circulated on social media after his team's shock exit from the Asian Cup are more than a decade old.
They show South Korean fans confronting the national team after they arrived home from a disappointing showing at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.
The images were shared in similar false posts on Facebook here, here and here, with comments indicating some users believed the images were recent.
"The game was disappointing, yes, but let's not treat the players like this. They did their best," read one comment.
Another sarcastically said: "These fans must be crazy, why not shoot the players instead?"
Airport reception in 2014
A reverse image search on Google found the first photo corresponds to one taken by the Korean news station "TV Report" on June 30, 2014, showing sweets being thrown at the South Korean players as they stood for the press at Incheon airport after they were knocked out of the World Cup (archived link).
The team only scored one goal in their three matches in Brazil, finishing bottom of their group -- the country's worst performance at a World Cup since 1998 (archived link).
Below is a screenshot comparison between the image shared in the false posts (left) and the photo from 2014 (right):
Similar footage was also published by local and international media, including MBC and Sky News (archived links here and here).
According to the reports, the sweets tossed at the players were a type of traditional Korean toffee known as "yeot" and the act of throwing them at someone is considered insulting.
The second photo -- credited to Yonhap news agency -- shows part of a banner brought to the airport by some of the same fans who threw the sweets, according to a report by the Kyunghyang Shinmun newspaper published on June 30, 2014 (archived link).
Below is a screenshot comparison between the image shared in the false posts (left) and the photo captured by Yonhap news agency (right):
Other photos of the same banner were published in local reports here and here (archived links here and here).
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