Hull City's key Japanese winger Hirakawa Yu (25), who was promoted from the English Championship (second division) to the Premier League, became a victim of "Asian passing."
Hull City beat Middlesbrough 1-0 in the 2025-2026 English Championship promotion playoff (PO) final at Wembley Stadium in London on the 23rd (Korean time).
Hirakawa's cross, which pierced the flank in the fourth minute of stoppage time in the second half with the score tied 0-0, induced a mistake by the opposing goalkeeper. In the end, Oli McBurnie (30) finished it, completing a dramatic goal that announced a return to the Premier League after 10 years.
In effect, the match was a bloody battle with astronomical value of at least 200 million pounds (about 405 billion won) or more, combining next season's Premier League broadcast rights fees and various subsidies. Hirakawa, the leading contributor to the promotion, naturally deserved the spotlight as a protagonist of the historic victory.
But an unthinkable scene was replayed during the victory ceremony. Just as Hirakawa was handed the trophy by a teammate and tried to hoist it over his head, the TV broadcast suddenly switched to an unrelated section of the stands.
Japan's Football Channel emphasized that it was an unnaturally awkward piece of video editing, saying, "It may have been a coincidence, but it raises interest as to whether there was any intention."
The timing was too exquisite to be mere coincidence. It was enough to call it a repeated instance of "Asian passing" in European football. It appeared clear that cameras quickly turned elsewhere at symbolic moments when an Asian player rose to be the team's protagonist.
This is not new. In the past, Park Ji-sung (45), Ki Sung-yueng, Shinji Okazaki, and Takumi Minamino experienced the same, and Paris Saint-Germain (PSG)'s Lee Kang-in and Kim Min-jae, and most recently Abdulkodir Husyanov (22, Uzbekistan) have also been subjected to it.
European clubs are desperate to secure the vast capital of the Asian market and income from uniforms and broadcast rights. However, they are stingy when it comes to actually recognizing Asian players as the stars of the stage.
[OSEN]