Referee Bae Seon-young's "Girl's Day" remark "It wasn't menstruation, it was 'Girl's Day'...so there's no problem?"

"I didn't use the word 'menstruation.'" This is the clarification from the Korea Football Association's Referee Operations Team regarding the controversy over referee comments directed at Ji So-yeon (Suwon FC Women). The statement was accurate. The word the referee used was not 'menstruation' but 'Girl's Day,' a euphemism for menstruation.

According to a Sports Seoul report on the 30th, a Suwon FC official stated, "It has been confirmed that the referee used the expression 'Girl's Day,' a euphemism for menstruation. The association also acknowledged this part." The player, in her confusion, may not have relayed the word precisely, but the statement itself—linking a player protesting the call to menstruation—did occur.

Then the question arises: if it was 'Girl's Day' rather than 'menstruation,' is there no problem?

Imagine the reverse scenario. If a player had stood before the referee, protesting the call, and said to the referee, "You seem sensitive from the start. Must be Girl's Day?" what would have happened? She would have been sent off on the spot, referred to the association's disciplinary committee, and suspended from several matches. The explanation that 'it was slang' would never have held up. If the same words coming from the referee's mouth are simply classified as 'unnecessary conduct,' then that is a double standard.

The essence of the remark is not about the word itself. A player protesting a call is an everyday scene on the pitch. The problem is the perspective that interprets that protest as 'sensitivity,' and sensitivity in turn as menstruation. Whether direct or euphemistic, the moment a female player's legitimate protest is substituted with a biological function, it becomes sexual harassment. Rather, the fact that a euphemism was deliberately chosen could itself be evidence that the speaker knew the nature of those words.

The association's response is similar. The clarification that "I didn't use the word 'menstruation'" may be factual, but it is not a valid justification. While the association was quibbling over words, the reality of the remark became even clearer, and the association, while acknowledging the use of slang, is only maintaining the defensive line that "it was not directed at Ji So-yeon specifically."

The problematic remark was made on the 28th during a WK League match between Suwon FC Women and Seoul City Hall at the Suwon Sports Complex. Ji So-yeon heard the referee mention menstruation over the referee radio communication while describing her as "sensitive from the start," and she protested. Instead, she received a yellow card. The match was suspended for approximately four minutes. The player who raised the issue cannot play in the next match due to accumulated cautions.

Suwon FC club is preparing to lodge a formal complaint with the association on the 31st. The International Federation of Professional Footballers (FIFPRO) has also begun investigating the circumstances through the Korean Professional Footballers Association. Now it is the association's turn to respond. Not about what word was used, but how it will discipline that perspective.