Blaming local promoters, Wolverhampton Wanderers withdraw from summer trip to Korea

Wolverhampton Wanderers, the Premier League club featuring Korean international Hwang Hee-chan, announced Thursday they will not participate in their summer exhibition tour to Korea.

In a statement posted on their website, Wolves said they were “forced to withdraw” from the July trip after “numerous financial and logistical obligations were not met by the tour’s promoter, Stadium X/USG.”

Wolves had been scheduled to play the Scottish champions Celtic on July 26 in Suwon, about 45 kilometers south of Seoul, and then the Italian side AS Roma on July 29 in Incheon, some 40 kilometers west of the capital city.

“After weeks of delays by the promoters and tickets not yet on sale for the matches, the difficult decision has been made to terminate the contract with the promoters and pull out of the tour,” Wolves said.

Russell Jones, the club’s general manager for marketing and commercial growth, said he was “incredibly disappointed” that Wolves’ first-ever visit to Korea didn’t materialize.

“We’re all devastated, because we had so many different things planned for supporters that we’re now not going to be able to fulfill,” Jones said. “Korea was an exciting proposition for us because of the impact Hee-chan has had on the club 추천 from a marketing perspective, but also because of a lot of the work we have done over the last 12 months and the growth we have seen amongst our fan base in Korea.”

Jones said all three European clubs on this tour have been affected by the promoters’ failure to meet financial obligations.

“The tour was brought to us by a well-respected and established group, so it gave us confidence that this would be a really exciting tour and at no point whatsoever did we think we’d be in the position we are right now,” he said. “We have been in close dialogue with the tour promoters for the past two months as they sought new investment, following the loss of the original tour investor, but unfortunately, and despite numerous promises, they have not delivered.”

An official with Stadium X/USG said the company had been prepared to deliver on its financial commitment by Friday.

“We were supposed to make an advance payment in May and then pay 70 percent of the balance by the end of June,” the official said. “Our understanding was that we were still in talks. And we were surprised to hear Wolverhampton announce the cancellation unilaterally. They’d even visited Korea twice to check on the hotel and stadiums.”

On Saturday, Italian media had reported that AS Roma would not travel to South Korea in July because the local promoters had not honored their financial commitments. In addition to playing Wolves on July 29, AS Roma were to take on the K League 1 club Incheon United in Incheon on Aug. 1.

The Stadium X/USG official said AS Roma had yet to make any official announcement on the trip.

“I believe they will reconsider (their decision to pull out) if we send money by Friday,” the official said. “We have not yet paid Wolverhampton and Roma, but we’ve already sent money to Celtic.”

In late May, a proposed two-match exhibition series in South Korea between the Italian champions Napoli and the Spanish club RCD Mallorca was canceled due to scheduling conflicts with the K League and financial issues.

Separately, treble winners Manchester City and Spanish club Atletico Madrid are scheduled to square off in Seoul on July 30