Park Eun-seon, 26, has participated in many international football events throughout her career, including the 2003 FIFA Women’s World Cup and the 2004 Olympics in Athens. And the 1.8-meter Seoul City Amazones forward had to go through gender tests to compete in the Olympics due to questions from other competing countries.

There is no plausible reason that anyone should doubt Park is a woman, not at this point. But that didn’t prevent the head coaches from the six other WK-Leagues teams from threatening to boycott next season if Park continues to play for the Amazones.

In questioning Park’s ''authenticity’’ as a woman, the coaches are failing to provide a better excuse other than their opinion that she ''looks manly.’’

“It’s a serious abuse of human rights,” Seoul Sports Council Secretary General Kim Joon-soo told reporters, Thursday. “The six coaches who created the problem should be held accountable for their action, and we demand their official apology.”

The press conference came a day after Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon, a former human rights lawyer, said Wednesday on his Twitter that he will try his best to protect the player’s human rights “with the heart of a father who has a daughter.”

Hyun Byung-chul, the president of National Human Rights Commission of Korea, also said Wednesday the organization sent an official request to the KWFF in order to gather facts about the issue.

The coaches had not questioned her sex before this season, which ended recently, but did after Park scored 19 goals in 22 games to lead her team to a surprising second-place finish. The team finished fifth last year.

Seoul City said its rivals conspired to sideline the star player for competitive reasons.

사진출처 : 인터풋볼