Park asks Man Utd fans to stop singing dog-meat song

 

Former Manchester United player Ji-Sung Park has asked the club’s supporters to stop singing a song about him that contains a negative racial stereotype about Korean people.

Although Park does not believe the fans mean to cause offence with the chant, which contains a reference to Koreans eating dog meat, he believes it makes Korean players feel uncomfortable.

Park claims some United supporters sang the song towards Wolves’ new signing Hee-Chan Hwang – a South Korea international who signed from RB Leipzig in the summer – during their fixture at Molineux in August.

“If I am being honest, I should probably speak out loud more this time,” he told the official UTD podcast.

“In that time (when I was a player at United), 15 years ago, everything changed from Holland to England, I had to adapt and start from zero. So when I heard that song at that time, I felt very proud first because they created a song for me, which is good for a player.

But when I heard about the lyric – about eating dog meat – it was very uncomfortable for me.

“I was young, I didn’t know the culture here, so it was probably one of the things I had to accept. I never thought the fans created the songs with bad meanings. They always make a song to give some energy to the players. That’s my thought. That’s why I accepted it.