South Korea’s National Soccer Team Advances to Asian Cup Semi-Finals, Eyes $1 Million Prize

The South Korean national soccer team, led by coach Jürgen Klinsmann, is just two steps away from winning the Asian Cup and stands to receive a sweet reward.

The team, led by Jürgen Klinsmann, secured a prize money of 1 million dollars by advancing to the semi-finals of the 2023 Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Qatar Asian Cup.

The Asian Cup had no prize money or appearance fees until 2015, but a prize system was first introduced at the 2019 United Arab Emirates (UAE) Asian Cup.

The tournament organizing committee announced that “this Asian Cup has allocated a huge amount of prize money totaling 14.8 million dollars.”

The 24 participating teams receive a basic participation fee of 200,000 dollars. The organizing committee explained that after distributing the appearance fees to the 24 countries, the remaining 10 million dollars are given to the top 4 teams that have advanced to the semi-finals.

The four teams that advance to the semi-finals each receive 1 million dollars (approximately 1.3 billion won). The two teams that succeeded in reaching the finals split 8 million dollars.

There is a $2 million difference between the winning and runner-up teams. The winning team receives 5 million dollars, while the runner-up gets 3 million dollars.

Suppose South Korea wins this tournament for the first time in 64 years. In that case, it will take home a total of 5.2 million dollars, including the participation fee of 200,000 dollars and the winning prize of 5 million dollars.

Previously, South Korea only received the participation fee when it was eliminated from the quarterfinals of the 2019 Asian Cup in Australia, where the prize money system was first introduced.

The much-anticipated semi-final match will occur at the Ahmed bin Ali Stadium in Al Rayyan, Qatar, at midnight on the 7th (Korean time). The opponent is Jordan, whom we faced in the second match of Group E in the group stage.

At that time, the two teams had a sweaty draw. South Korea took the lead with Son Heung Min’s penalty kick in the 9th minute of the first half, but it was reversed due to an own goal and an additional loss.

When the clouds of defeat were looming, Hwang In Beom induced an own goal from the opponent in extra time of the second half, narrowly avoiding defeat. Now, the two teams meet again on the tightrope.

The winner of this match will face the winner of Qatar-Iran on the 11th for the Asian Cup trophy.