Soccer, More Than A Sport For Koreans

Stephano Andreoli from HBS media group who came to Korea from Italy for World Cup reports was overwhelmed by the volcanic scene of hundreds of thousands of Korean soccer fans who gathered in Sejong street, downtown Seoul, to support the Korean team. Keeping saying ‘incredible’, he added that in Italy, people often erupt in violence in football events much smaller than the World Cup, but in Korea, people keep order while enthusiastically rooting for their team.

On June 6, the day before Korea’s match with the US, AFP had reported that even though Korean fans root very soberly, they might turn into beasts after the match. However, the situation turned the opposite. Koreans enjoyed the match as a festival and kept mature attitude throughout their rooting.

This enthusiastic but sober rooting culture in Korea is giving impression on foreigners.

Citing a French reporter on June 8, Kyodo News in Japan reported that some of those Korean fans must have been mobilized. However, the report was incorrect and the reporter was ignorant of Korea’s unique rooting culture.

Then what lies behind this volcanic rooting of Koreans? Some psychiatrists explain the culture in terms of collective hysteria. Professor Gweon Jun-soo from the psychiatry department of college of medicine at the Seoul National University said that collective hysteria has some positive functions in that it lets people relive stress and that the rooting culture of Koreans could be understood in this context. That is, in a situation where the general public is totally disappointed at the current social and political leadership, soccer is serving as a channel for ordinary citizens to discharge their grumbles.

Min Seong-gil from the psychiatric department of medical school in Yonsei University expressed a similar view. According to him, collective hysteria, if uncontrolled, may lead to collective depression but Koreans have a high level of citizenship to control themselves and to enjoy the festivity mood.

Sports experts say that soccer has carried out this cathartic function throughout the sports history in Korea since the Japanese colonial rule in early 1900’s. Sports have had some negative functions in other nations. The case in point: sports sparked a war between Honduras and El Salvador in 1969. However, in case of Korea, sports have mainly served as a means to unite citizens and to express the will of people.

Professor Mun Ik-su of physical education department at Korea University, a sports psychologist, detailed that under the Japanese colonial rule and under the military dictatorship Korean citizens expressed their will through sports and rooting. When Korea was under the Japanese rule, major players were independence activists and sports activities were independence movements. Also, when Korea was under the military regime, the annual sports league between Yonsei and Korea universities served as demonstration activities against the dictatorship and was supported by citizens. Mun also explained that the massive rooters on the streets are letting out their complaints against the social and political leadership through soccer rooting and they are also demonstrating the power of people. It is worth noting that those citizens are gathering on Sejong street area, which is a historical place of civil movements.

Seong-Ju Lee stein33@donga.com