'Betrayed' Korean football fans boycott Ronaldo-related products
The image promoting the boycott.
By Park Si-soo
Feeling betrayed by Cristiano Ronaldo's no-show in a recent sold-out match here, Korean football fans have started boycotting products related to the Portuguese football star.
A digitally altered image promoting the boycott is spreading on major community websites.
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and other brands promoted by Ronaldo will closely watch how the campaign unfolds and its impact on their sales.
Hundreds of Ronaldo jerseys have been on sale on websites selling used products since his controversial no-show on July 26. And Ronaldo's value in the popular FIFA Online 4 football game has plunged since the incident, after Korean users dumped the character.
Korean gamers are also poised to boycott PES 2020, another football game that Japanese game maker KONAMI developed in collaboration with Ronaldo's Juventus. The game is to hit the domestic market on Sept. 10.
“Ronaldo betrayed us. Let him pay the price,” a netizen wrote.
Juventus' global sponsor JEEP has canceled events for Korean customers in the wake of the controversy.