FC Seoul was unfairly deprived of one point. The misjudged referee was suspended from play.
The Korea Football Association (KFA) referee committee held an evaluation subcommittee on the 27th and unanimously admitted that a misjudgment had occurred in the 2023 K League 1 HanawonQ round 9 match between FC Seoul and Gangwon FC held on the 26th the previous day.
The incident occurred just before the end of the game. With Seoul trailing 2-3, Joo-Sung Kim hit the head with Ki Sung-Yeong’s corner kick in the second half of extra time. Gangwon Han Kook-young blocked this, causing a chaotic situation in front of the goal, and Palosevich shook the net with a left-footed shot.
But before that, the referee’s whistle blew. During the game, referee Chae Sang-hyeop declared a foul, saying Jin-ya Kim of Seoul pulled Min-woo Seo of Gangwon-do and knocked him over, and the goal was not recognized. However, it is revealed that Seo Min-woo tripped over his colleague’s foot, not Kim Jin-ya’s. It is an obvious mistake.
Due to the timing of the whistle, video review (VAR) could not correct the mistake. If the referee had declared a foul after Palošević had cut the net, he could have overturned the goal with VAR.
However, since a simple foul is not subject to VAR, Palosevich’s score could not be reviewed. Seoul players, including Kim Jin-ya, approached the referee and complained, but there was no way they could do anything in the VAR referee’s room. A hasty whistle took away even the opportunity to correct the mistake. In the end, Seoul lost a dramatic equalizer right in front of their eyes, and lost one point unjustly, accepting the defeat as it was. 토토사이트
Referee Sang-Hyeop Chae, who served as the referee for the match, will be excluded from this weekend’s game. A KFA official said, “The evaluation subcommittee unanimously judged that Kim Jin-ya’s foul and the situation where the VAR was impossible to read were all false referees. We took an emergency measure not to assign the referee to the weekend game.”
Further action will be decided next week. The referee committee plans to discuss additional administrative measures such as retraining referee Sang-hyup Chae at the regular evaluation subcommittee to be held next Tuesday.
However, it is known that the refereeing committee has not officially apologized to the Seoul club. A KFA official said, “As a result of the committee’s internal meeting, it is true that they acknowledged the mistake and expressed regret. However, I have not heard that the referee committee apologized to the Seoul club, so I cannot comment. It has not been confirmed. It is not the official position of the committee.”
No matter what actions and apologies there are, the results are irreversible. Seoul cannot give back 1 point that was taken away by misjudgment, nor can it retrieve 2 points from Gangwon.
Last season, the difference between Seoul (9th place, 46 points) and Suwon Samsung (10th place, 44 points) in the promotion playoffs was only 2 points. The fate of Gangwon (45 points) and Suwon FC (44 points), who were competing for the final A, was also decided by one point. In the fierce championship races such as Pohang and Ulsan in 2013 and Jeonbuk and Ulsan in 2019, winners and losers were divided by a difference of one point. No one knows what kind of butterfly effect this miscarriage will produce.
