Koreans fans are angry with Ronaldo!
رونالدو في مرمى غضب جماهيره الكوريين!
Agency faces lawsuits after Ronaldo no-show
The non-appearance of Portuguese footballer Cristiano Ronaldo in Friday’s much-heralded exhibition match between Juventus and the K League All-Stars is resulting in multiple lawsuits.
The Italian club had a pre-season match against the K League team Friday in the packed 63,000-seat Seoul World Cup Stadium, but despite the advance publicity, Ronaldo, the biggest draw for the match, sat it out, citing muscle fatigue and exhaustion.
As a result, angered Korean football fans, who broke the bank to watch Ronaldo play, are teaming up to file a class-action lawsuit against TheFasta, the agency that organized the match, demanding a refund for tickets that cost up to 400,000 won ($338).
In addition, the K League also plans to bring a suit against the agency, which is itself also reported considering suing the Italian football club for breach of contract.
According to legal experts, multiple law firms are currently recruiting people for class-action suits against TheFasta.
Local law firm Myungan said those who purchased the expensive tickets were not treated in the way they expected, or deserved, due to Ronaldo’s absence from the field.
“TheFasta actively promoted its contractual terms with Juventus that Ronaldo would play at least for one half of the match. Taking advantage of this, it sold the tickets at high prices,” the law firm said on its blog.
“As a contractual obligation was breached, the ticket purchasers will be able to get a large part of the ticket price back.”
According to the law firm, 2,000 people have joined its class-action suit as of Monday.
The agreement signed between Juventus and the agency reads “Juventus Football Club agrees that the Juventus First Team player Cristiano Ronaldo shall play a substantial portion of the match. Substantial portion of the match means that Cristiano Ronaldo will play a minimum of 45 minutes of the match.”
Another law firm Oh Kims Law and Company said in a press statement that those who bought the tickets can demand damages against the organizer for defaulting on the contract that included the clause that the team would feature the five-time Ballon d’Or winner playing.
“As TheFasta did nothing to prepare for unexpected events, while organizing a large-scale sporting event, football fans who visited the stadium suffered financial losses. We will hold the agency responsible for this,” the law firm said.
Along with them, two more law firms are also preparing their own class-action suits.
Separately, the K League is also set to seek financial compensation from TheFasta as the two sides agreed that if Ronaldo did not play for at least 45 minutes, the agency would have to pay a penalty.
“The K League is also a victim of the event, so we plan to take legal action against TheFasta,” its official said.
The besieged agency may also file a lawsuit against the Italian club, saying it was notified of Ronaldo’s non-appearance 10 minutes after the second half started.
Robin Jang, CEO of the agency, said in a media interview that representatives from Juventus will visit Korea this week to apologize for the incident.
Initially, the agency planned to hold a press conference Monday, but this is expected to come after discussions with the Italian club later this week.
The Ronaldo brouhaha is causing an unexpected fallout for Alberto Mondi, an Italian TV personality who served as an interpreter for the post-match press conference.
According to media reports, Juventus manager Maurizio Sarri said he would pay for flights to Italy for those who wanted to see Ronaldo play, seemingly fed up with a series of questions from the media about benching his star player.
However, Mondi did not translate this, which later came to light through Il Bianconero, an Italian media outlet, which reported that the Juve manager let slip a joke to a journalist who specifically asked about Ronaldo by saying “If you want to see him so much, I’ll pay for your flight.”
Korean fans criticized Mondi for “purposely” failing to translate this. In response, Mondi said through his agency that Sarri made the remarks using polite words rather than being sarcastic. He added that with the limited time allowed, he did not translate it because it was not related to the match.
source: koreatimes.co.kr
سيول – أ ف ب:
وضع النجم البرتغالي كريستيانو رونالدو نفسه في مرمى انتقادات وغضب مشجعين من كوريا الجنوبية بسبب عدم مشاركته مع فريقه يوفنتوس الإيطالي وفريق من نجوم الدوري الكوري الجنوبي.
وبقي رونالدو على مقاعد البدلاء طيلة المباراة التي انتهت بالتعادل 3-3 في سيول يوم الجمعة الماضي، متجاهلا هتافات مشجعين طالبوا بدخوله أرض الملعب الذي غصت مدرجاته بـ65 ألف متفرج، ما دفع العديد منهم للهتاف لصالح غريمه الأرجنتيني ليونيل ميسي نجم برشلونة الإسباني، والحائز مثله مثل رونالدو، على الكرة الذهبية لأفضل لاعب في العالم خمس مرات.
وأفادت شركة ميونغان للمحاماة في سيول أن أكثر من ألفين مشجع كوري سيقاضون وكالة رياضية، وأن منظمي المباراة أكدوا أن العقد الموقع مع يوفنتوس بطل الدوري الإيطالي في المواسم الثمانية الأخيرة، كان يلزم رونالدو خوض 45 دقيقة على الأقل، ما دفع الجماهير للتهافت على شراء البطاقات التي راوحت أسعارها ما بين 25 دولارا أميركيا و338 دولارا، ونفدت بالكامل في غضون ساعتين ونصف الساعة بعد طرحها للبيع في الثالث من يوليو.
وقال المحامي كيم هون – كي لوكالة فرانس برس “حتى الآن، اتصل بنا اكثر من ألفي مشجع لمتابعة الدعوى”، مضيفا “نخطط لتقديم الدعوى رسميا نيابة عنهم الأسبوع المقبل، في حال لم تقدم الوكالة اي خطة ملموسة للتعويض على حاملي التذاكر قبل ذلك”.
وتأخر موعد إقلاع الطائرة التي كانت تقل الفريق الإيطالي من نانجينغ الصينية حيث خاض ودية أمام مواطنه إنتر ميلان إلى كوريا خمس ساعات، ما أدى الى تأخر موعد انطلاق المباراة لساعة تقريبا.
وقوبل امتناع رونالدو عن المشاركة بردود فعل غاضبة على مواقع التواصل الاجتماعي، حيث اعتبر أحد المشجعين أن الدولي البرتغالي “خان واستخف بـ 60 ألف متفرج”، مضيفا “لم اعد من عشاق رونالدو”.
