(This is a long effort post)
I'm generally a casual lurker of
r/soccer, and after I've seen
r/soccer - Tottenham Hotspur & South Korea professional Heung Min Son may have to spend the next two years in mandatory military service after South Korea's potential Group Stage exit. this thread about Son's military situation with so many misleading info from both the article and the comments, I'm going to chime in a bit of info. FYI, I'm a mod of
r/kleague and I'm a Korean serving the duty (civic service - which what Son could be doing in the near future) this very moment, so at least I'm qualified to talk about this??
< What must Son do to be exempt from the South Korean military draft in legal boundaries? (while being able to keep his Korean citizenship?) >
It's very simple - Win the Asian Games in Indonesia this August, or seek a medal at the Tokyo olympic games. Those are the only two options. If he fails to win the tournament this August, his time at Spurs will be over in a very short time. (probably ending at summer 2019 or summer 2020, if he's lucky)
To begin with - let me repeat this - The Asian Cup (held by the AFC), and the FIFA World Cup has absolutely no relation with the status of Son's military draft.
The logic is that
all athletes, regardless of which sport they play in, should have equal chances of getting military exemptions with their achievements. The actual reason is, being serious - because of baseball.
The reason why the entire member of the 2002 Korea squad got exempted was not because it was legally written. Upon receiving the draw of that WC (with Portugal, US and Poland), South Korea was genuinely terrified to face embarrassment as possibly the first host nation to fail to qualify to the knockout stages (keep in mind the first host nation to not qualify to the knockouts was 2010's South Africa). Along with Japan getting a dream draw (with Belgium, Russia and Tunisia), the fear intensified.
The outcome was the Korean government deciding to hand out a special deal to the Korean squad for 2002 - should they qualify to the round of 16, they are exempt.
And we all know what happened - Jisung Park etc. got exempted from military duty because of their efforts in the group stages.
But the problem started after Korea's national baseball team got to the semifinals of the 1st World Baseball Classic of 2006. Considering Baseball is the No. 1 sport of South Korea, the ego-filled baseball people absolutely could not accept that the footballers (Korea's "secondary" sport) were getting military exemptions for "just" being out of the group stage in a world cup, while baseball reached the semifinals and weren't getting anything. In their perspective, the World Baseball Classic was starting to be the baseball equivalent of the FIFA World Cup, so by their logic handing the baseball squad of 2006 military exemptions were fair. The majority of the Korean population were/still are baseball fans so the general consensus were also positive.
The military manpower association (the government officials) accepted this and gave millitary exemptions to the baseball squad of 2006.
What happened afterwards were a series of controversies. Pretty much every single sporting, entertainment organization in Korea, other than football and baseball protested the decision. Among the most vocal were the sporting organizations who competed at the Olympics. For example - the archery players, the judo - taekwondo players, the volleyball, baseballbasketball, swimming, badminton, table tennis, hockey ..... all the sports have their own international tournaments akin to the world cup of football, why do they have to face unfair lack of opportunities just because they are playing in an unpopular sport??
So the government came to a conclusion - only to hand military exemptions to those who excelled at tournaments where every sport can have a fair chance of opportunities. And that can only mean these 2 tournaments can do that - Any medal in the Olympics (1-3rd place) or a gold medal (1st) in the Asian Games. (NOT the FIFA World Cup or the AFC Asian Cup)
By that new guideline, here's what happened -
Baseball: 2008 Beijing Gold, 2010 Asian Games Gold, 2014 Asian Games Gold - all squad exempt from duty
2009 World Baseball Classic finalists - no exemptions from military duty
Football: 2012 London Bronze, 2014 Asian Games Gold - all squad exempt from duty
2010 FIFA World Cup round of 16 - no exemptions from military duty
<Then, why does Son only have two more chances, the 2018 Asian Games and the 2020 Olympics? What is the deadline?>
To preface, Son's birthday is July 8th, 1992.
As per the military manpower association guidelines, a person who has not yet served military duty can legally withhold from duty until the age of 27. (It's the western age 27.) Strictly speaking it's until 24 if you're not doing any studying at a university or working abroad, until 27 if you're working abroad or studying with a working/student visa (you have to repeat this every year until the 27 threshold), and until 28 if you're in Korea doing university scholarship or field work.
Son, as now, fits under the "working abroad with a working permit from the UK" status, his waiver ends with age 27, so he has to return before he reaches his 28th birthday - which is, very hopefully speaking, around June 2020.
So, brace yourself Spurs fans, if he doesn't win the 2018 Jakarta Asian games, his time with Spurs will be over in maximum 2 years. (It could possibly be even earlier, like summer 2019, depending on the military manpower association's decisive ruling) He will likely fail to get a work permit, return to Korea and fight with the slim hope with a bronze at the Tokyo olympics, (he will try every possible legal loop to compete his last chance in Japan) but the chances are slim.
<Were there any other similar cases with what Son is facing right now?>
Yes - Chuyoung Park with Monaco and Woolwich. He, also, faced the threat of military duty when he reached his age limit in 2011, when he was an AS Monaco player. To loophole this, he got a 10-year residency from the monarchy of Monaco, effectively nullifying his military draft! (He eventually solved his turmoil with the draft by winning bronze in the 2012 London Olympics)
This deservedly cased massive controversy, which made the military to revise its guidelines for workers working in foreign countries with a residency visa. Before Chuyoung Park, delaying military duty with a foreign visa was possible. Now the loophole is blocked, it's impossible. (A golf player called Sangmoon Bae
Bae Sang-moon - Wikipedia , tried this after Park Chuyoung and lost his case in Korea court, and got drafted to the military afterwards) Son is now impossible to delay his draft with a UK visa. Sucks even worse for Son, amiright??
<What club will Son play if the worst happens and he returns to Korea?>
If there's any more bad news for Son, brace yourself. Son can NOT play in Korea's domestic K League.
The reason for this is because he has finished his middle school, but has not graduated high school. He spent a few months in a Korean high school(Dongbuk high school) before going to Hamburg.
If he didn't graduate middle school, like Chungyong Lee of Crystal Palace(who's exempt from military duty), Son would've been free from all of this in the first place, but how unfortunate is he.
That makes him a 4th-rate manpower, which makes Son qualified for Civic Service - which is for men who can't exactly be a soldier, but are not really fit to be exempt either. He will serve for 2 full years.
This means Son will not be able to go to the military teams in the K League - Sangju Sangmu FC (1st tier) and Asan Mugunghwa FC (Second tier). He will not be able to play at a professional level for 2 years. (He can't repeal the status of the draft to force himself to be in the military army itself because of this either, because what made him civic service in the first place was his high school drop, not because of his physical/mental health)
Men in Civic service are mainly for welfare and government work. Which will mean Son will likely babysit someone in a public kindergarten, take care of old people in dementia clinic or just sit and work in a cubicle inside a government office.
Men in Civic Service MUST work from 9am to 6pm every week, Monday to Friday. This means that Son will not be able to play in the Korea National League (semi-pro league, 3rd tier) because the National League's matchdays are mostly at weekdays.
This means that Son will have to play in the K3 League - a 4th tier league for amateurs. All K3 league matchdays are at a Saturday. The league itself is basically an equivalent of England's Sunday League. He will likely play in a club with a proximity to Seoul - possibly Hwaseong FC, Yangpyong FC or Pocheon FC, who are the powerhouses(...) of the K3 league.
A player like Son, imagining Son playing in Sunday League...wow....
<Presuming Son fails at August's Asian Games...is there no hope for him? Is there any other way?>
There are 2 possible ways.
The first, is him sustaining a very serious injury. It is possible to be exempt from the military draft itself, with a very serious injury. The two most common ones are 1) the dislocation of a shoulder (like what Salah got injured by Ramos), or 2) the rupture of an ACL. The problem is that by sustaining these injuries Son will not be the great player that he once was.
The important thing is that this
has to be an accident injury. Baseball players were caught with actively dislocating their shoulders in 2004, now that loophole is closed.
Another possible way, a more realistic way, is the Minister of Manpower Association, General Chansoo Ki (기찬수,
here's him doing an interview) making a possible exception for him, and delaying the draft for Son until he plays his prime years at Tottenham. I consider this outcome most likely.
This is a big call though. The most prominent K-Pop stars like G-Dragon are serving in the army right now. To make an exception for Heungmin Son, while not making exceptions for K-pop stars, will make the fandoms there possibly upset. (Sorry to edit this, 'angry' is a blunt usage for this!)
<What will happen if he ultimately decides to ignore the draft?>
He will have extreme difficulty living in Korea's society. The society absolutely upholds military duty to be the most "fair". It's ironically the most complete form of Korean social justice. To endanger possibly the most "fair" thing in this (still) corrupted country right now will anger many people.
If he has the courage, he can decide to emigrate to a new country. But by doing that he will never be able to set foot on South Korean soil ever again.
:eriksenlol:
:vert: