Apink’s Hayoung and gugudan’s Kim Sejeong took to social media to address the rumors and reports about a new girl group soccer team.

On July 19, Hayoung uploaded a photo to Instagram that showed the formation of a new all-female non-professional soccer club called “FC Rumor.” Kim Sejeong also shared the photo and wrote, “A hobby to which I’m grateful. For the development of women’s soccer.” These posts have since been deleted.

The photo showed that the soccer club had been formed on July 18. Although the girls in the photo had their backs to the camera, their matching uniforms showed famous names such as gugudan’s Nayoung, BESTie’s Uji, TWICE’s Jihyo and Mina, EXID’s Jeonghwa, and actress Kim Sae Ron.

FC Rumor had also set up an Instagram account of its own, which has now been made private. The Instagram account shows that the new club is also called “FC Rumor W,” which indicates its all-female status.

However, rumors began spreading that the club was affiliated with an all-male celebrity soccer team, also called “FC Rumor.” Certain malicious commenters spread rumors that the two soccer clubs were just an excuse for those male and female celebrities to meet up and date.

Later on July 19, Hayoung took to Twitter to refute the rumors.

Lots of people have been sending me various posts and comments to read. The members have formed this club because we love soccer, and we have no connection to anyone else! I think that a lot of people are worried, so I wanted to tell you.

I was shocked to receive malicious comments that crossed the line, as well as harassing comments and direct messages (DMs). A lot of it was stuff I heard for the first time, and because I was worried about fans being concerned, I want to talk about whether you were worried and what you were worried about! Our club doesn’t meet with anyone else and we formed the club just because we liked exercise and competition…!

We’re an all-female team composed only of people who love soccer. We sweat and work hard and exercise together! There are a lot of stories coming up because of misunderstandings and speculation. I learned soccer because I wanted to tell fans afterward about my new experiences, but it seems many people have taken it the wrong way.

I’m sorry for causing misunderstandings. I am going to talk to my agency about the malicious comments that crossed the line. We are working hard with a good goal in mind, so please stop with the misunderstandings!

Our team has no relationship with the male team and we’ve never even played soccer together! If other fans or Pink Pandas are worried even in the slightest, it makes me even more worried. We’re aware of the current [pandemic] situation, so we were cautious and met up for the first time recently. If Pandas, are concerned, we’ll be more careful in the future!

Kim Sejeong also wrote on Instagram, “The male and female teams have no relationship with each other, plan to have no relationship with each other, and have had no exchange at all. We don’t plan to have any exchange, we don’t even know who is on each other’s team, and we’re not curious about each other at all. We really did form a club because we liked soccer and wanted to learn about it and get a new hobby. There are non-celebrities included, not just celebrities, so I’m sorry that as celebrities we couldn’t protect their private lives.”

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