FC Seoul has put inflatable dolls in place of the fans

Making the atmosphere of empty stadiums less dilapidated to try to give a minimum of charge to their players is the new goal of the clubs.

Until yesterday, the "creative society" award had been won by Borussia Monchengladbach which, through cardboard, had replaced the flesh-and-blood fans; then FC Seoul decided to raise the bar with a gimmick that aroused more criticism than appreciation: in the challenge against Gwangjiu, in fact, inflatable dolls were placed on the stands of the empty plant - including 28 women and 2 men -, a choice that led to allegations by fans of using "sexual" dolls.

While expressing "sincere remorse" on the matter, the club however specified that they were "premium mannequins" and not inflatable dolls, citing the reassurances of the manufacturer of the mannequins themselves - also manufacturer of sex toys, so much so that some of the dolls they supported signs that advertised sites of protected categories - placed in the stands to create "an element of fun", although no one clarified the choice of supplying a company that produces dolls and why almost all the mannequins at the stadium had feminine features.

Lee Ji-hoon, manager of FC Seoul, told the BBC that he hadn't checked the background of Dalcom, the company that had supplied the dummies, and that he hadn't realized he had worked with a company that created products for the "sex industry". Lee admitted that he thought the dolls were "very human", but said it hadn't even occurred to him that they could be sex toys.

Dalcom's only "mea culpa" comes when the signs held by the dolls are pointed out, declaring that "All logos should have been removed before the game started."