Red Devils to lead organized cheering campaign

By Yi Whan-woo

Korea Times intern

Anyone rooting for South Korean footballers can be called a "Red Devil." This might sound like the supporters for the Taeguk Warriors are free from any kind of organization, but they are actually under charge of the namesake South Korean supporters' club, which is in charge of building up collective cheering in a systematic way by mobilizing individual supporters.

Even though it has grown into a massive organization over the last 15 years since its foundation, the Red Devil maintains its character as a flexible and genuinely-purposed entity.

It has the official slogan of "Shouts of Reds, United Korea," but that does not mean these football "devils" will try to enforce visiting or residing Korean people to get together as a mandatory meet in any overseas region. Instead, the Red Devils will keep up with those fans to cheer at their convenience.

"(The Red Devils) started as a small organization made up of genuine football lovers. Now we have abundant know-how of effective cheering activities, we will not let them be a bind for those who will be joining us in the stadiums," said Park Chang-hyun, the overseas cheering department head of the Red Devils.

He will leave for South Africa Thursday along with a total of 70 die-hard supporters.

Now the group has a new slogan, and has also picked several new tunes for the World Cup, which kicks off Friday. Park, however, is well aware of things that could thwart the organized cheering for the Korean team.

"As shown in the warmup match against Belarus, overseas Koreans have limited access to the latest styles of cheering," the 41-year-old cheer leader said.

"It is likely to take some time for supporters to get used to shouting out the new slogan, so we will start to liven up the mood first with popular slogans such as "Daehanminguk" (Republic of Korea) or "Oh, pilseung Korea" (Oh, victorious Korea), Park said.

Apart from free approaches of inducing cheers, however, every preparatory activity for the Red Devils is strictly organized for the South Africa World Cup.

The massive South Korean flag, which will appear from the bottom of their seats and spread all over the section of the stadium every time the national anthem is played in international matches, will not be taken to South Africa this time.

"The flag can't be used in this World Cup. To spread that flag, the whole section of the stadium has to be filled with Korean supporters, but there will not be enough people for that," Park said.

"Imagine how many people you would need if you want to unfold the 60-meter-wide and 40-meter-long Taegukgi, which is huge enough to be kept in a 40-feet-wide container."

Use of that gigantic Taegukgi is subject to a sufficient number of supporters, so it is limited to home games or overseas matches held not far from here, as in the warmup with Japan on May 24.

In further proof of the group's preparation, Park visited all three South African stadiums that will host group matches in April to check the possibility of the use of the flag.

The Taeguk Warriors will play their Group B matches in Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium in Port Elizabeth, Soccer City Stadium in Johannesburg and Durban Stadium in Durban, taking on Greece, Argentina and Nigeria, respectively.

"During the trip, I found out the sections were not spacious enough to use the jumbo flag. So we prepared instead a smaller 600-square-meter flag, cut in half in width and length, for this tournament," Park said.

Over the last four years, the overall number of Red Devils activists has contracted from 450 to 70. But their significance still prevails, in close connection with public bodies such as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the Korea Embassy in South Africa and local Korean associations in the African nation.

"The delegation is smaller in size this time, but I'm still seriously concerned about the security of the people that will be under my guidance. This is something that requires collaboration with government agencies.

"To prepare transportation, including buses and airplanes, I contacted the ministry through which I could reach the Korea Embassy, and then local Korean organizations," Park said.

The Red Devils specialize in cheering as the club provides ideas such as phrases for commercial companies for World Cup marketing, while the group does not want any financial reward in return.

"This year's World Cup slogan is used by one of FIFA's official sponsors, and the catchy words came from us," Park said.

As to whether the club gets offers of commercial benefits from corporations, Park said this was not the case noting that "the Red Devils are just those who are fond of football."

"For instance, the expenses for this South Africa trip are wholly paid for by us. We do not expect financial aid from any firms."

Park's biggest concern is the use of the name "Red Devils" by companies' marketing advertisements in their ambush merchandising strategies could make ordinary consumers have the wrong idea that the organization officially supports this commercial connection.

"As I stress over and over, we started the club back in 1995 just to enjoy football, and this is how we'll keep the Red Devils. So do not be misled by any commercial attempts," Park said.