South Korean Fans Seeking Compensation After Cristiano Ronaldo No-Show in Friendly

Fans in Seoul, South Korea, are looking to claim compensation after Cristiano Ronaldo didn't feature during a pre-season friendly between Juventus and the K League All-Stars.

Ordinarily, the lack of a player's inclusion would not cause this sort of uproar, but Juventus agreed a contract with event organisers, the Fasta Inc., stating CR7 would play at least 45 minutes.

Consequently, a number of fans bought tickets purely on the basis that they would get to see one of football's biggest superstars.

JUNG YEON-JE/GettyImages

An online community has since been organised on South Korea's Naver web portal by fans protesting the matter, two of which have contacted lawyer Kim Min-ki.

Reuters reports that he told SBS: “Many purchased tickets to see Ronaldo. The Fasta publicised that the company had a deal with Juventus which stipulated Ronaldo would play for at least 45 minutes and that Ronaldo would hold a fan signing event.

“Normally in such cases the plaintiffs will be refunded the price of the tickets, but I put this under a special case since the company, through false advertising, took advantage of the football star’s fans.”

Understandably, these fans are submitting a lawsuit after not receiving what they were promised, and are seeking compensations of 70,000, equal to $59 for the ticket sale.

JUNG YEON-JE/GettyImages

The controversial aspect comes with fans also claiming that they suffered 'mental anguish' at not being able to watch their idol, consequently seeking another $847, over 14 times greater than the ticket cost.

Claiming that much compensation after not being allowed to see someone play for 45 minutes, irrespective of whoever that player might be, seems somewhat excessive but Min-ki has highlighted his sympathies nonetheless.

“As for the mental anguish part, I’d like to say some of them are raucous fans, the real avid fans. So for them it is very painful because they love Ronaldo and want to protect him, but they can’t, given the situation.”

HECTOR RETAMAL/GettyImages

The Fasta CEO Robin Chang later confirmed that Juventus didn't abide by the rules of the agreed contract having found out that Ronaldo would not be taking part 10 minutes into the second half, before confronting Juve vice chairman Pavel Nedved.

“When I went to argue with Nedved, the vice president of Juventus, all he said was ‘I also wish Ronaldo ran, but he doesn’t want to. Sorry, there’s nothing I can do.’ I was so frustrated.”