Cristiano Ronaldo: Fans seek lawsuit after South Korea no-show

Angry South Korean football fans are seeking compensation after
Cristiano Ronaldo failed to take to the pitch during a Juventus
pre-season friendly, BBC reports.

The superstar was contracted to play 45 minutes when the match
against K League All Stars was announced, organisers say, but he
stayed on the subs’ bench.

Fans became angry when he made no sign of lacing up his boots,
even chanting the name of his rival Lionel Messi.

Some have now reached out to Seoul law firm Myungan to file a
lawsuit.

They are seeking compensation of 70,000 won (£48.50; $59) per
ticket, 1,000 won for the ticket commission fee, and 1m won each
for compensation for “mental anguish”.

“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,” a lawyer from the firm told Reuters.

“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,” he added.

“For now we have two plaintiffs who sued the company, but I have
been getting a lot of calls today and I assume there will be some
60,000 more.”

Robin Chang, CEO of The Fasta, the Korean agency which arranged
the game, broke down in tears to broadcaster SBS and confirmed that
the contract stipulated the Portuguese star appear for 45
minutes.

However, Ms Chang said she only found out that the 34-year-old
would not be making an appearance 10 minutes into the second
half.

“When I went to argue with (Pavel) 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,”
she said.

South Korea’s professional football governing body, K League,
said a letter of protest has been sent to the Italian champions for
violating the contract.

Many fans have been voicing their anger at Ronaldo on social
media.

“He betrayed the 60,000 audience and belittled us,” a fan who
attended the match posted on Instagram.

“I’m no longer a Ronaldo fan.”