This archive report was first published on 1 August 2019.
On August 1, 2019, the K League, South Korea's top football league, expressed its disappointment and frustration with Juventus over Cristiano Ronaldo's no-show in a pre-season friendly in Seoul.
According to the K League, Ronaldo was contracted to play at least 45 minutes against the K League All Stars, but was advised to rest by Juventus' medical staff due to 'muscle fatigue' from a match played 48 hours earlier in Nanjing.
However, the K League felt that Juventus' response to the incident was inadequate, with the Italian club's chairman, Andrea Agnelli, denying any wrongdoing but failing to apologize for Ronaldo's absence.
The K League rejected Juventus' claims that a delay at the airport and heavy traffic en route to the stadium had forced the match to kick off later than scheduled.
Instead, the K League pointed out that it took only 26 minutes for the Juventus delegation to go through immigration, contradicting Juventus' claim that it took roughly 1 hour 50 minutes to exit the airport.
