"Players Worth Billions Doing Laundry Until 4 a.m.?"... Baseball Team Furious After Going Days Without Clean Uniforms [Nagoya Asian Games]

[Financial News]  After a national anthem playback error and a no-show by transport buses, now comes the "laundry war." As the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games face daily criticism for what has been described as the worst event operations in history, baseball players from national teams have been forced into the farcical sight of lining up in the middle of the night in front of coin-operated washing machines. In the end, major countries that could no longer tolerate the situation paid out of pocket to hire private laundry services, bringing the episode to a bitter conclusion of every team fending for itself.
China Times reported on the 23rd, "The Taiwan Baseball Association has finally found an outside laundry service," adding, "Players can now have their uniforms washed at their own expense, so they no longer have to do their own laundry in the early morning." The outlet continued, "The national teams of South Korea, Japan and China have also signed contracts with different outside laundry services. The unusual sight of players lining up in long queues in front of the hotel's coin-operated washing machines will now be difficult to see."
The situation began with the organizing committee's careless administration. Baseball national teams, including South Korea's, are currently sharing a hotel in downtown Nagoya as their accommodation. Although the hotel provides laundry service, it operates under the unreasonable system of taking several days to return clothes after they are submitted. The arrangement completely fails to account for the nature of baseball uniforms, which become covered in dirt every day through intense plays such as sliding.



Players who had no uniform to wear the next day had no choice but to rely on the small number of coin-operated washing machines available at the hotel. Every night, players from the various countries returned from practice and games and engaged in a tense scramble to secure the limited machines.
Taiwan captain Chen Min-tzu finally reached his breaking point. In a local interview on the 22nd, he strongly criticized the poor conditions, saying, "We arrived at the hotel late after a night game, but we still had to do our own laundry using the coin-operated washing machines. The laundry finished at around 3 or 4 a.m., and we had to get up at 6 or 7 a.m. for a day game. We essentially played without getting any sleep at all."
In the end, major countries including South Korea, Taiwan, Japan and China gave up on support from the organizing committee and sought outside laundry services using their national associations' own funds. A KBO official said on the 23rd, "We assessed the situation and signed a contract with an outside service early on to resolve the laundry problem."
Still, the situation leaves a bitter aftertaste. Countries receiving ample support were able to solve the problem through financial means, while players from some national teams, including Palestine, whose domestic federations lack sufficient financial resources, are reportedly still operating the coin-operated washing machines themselves, even at the expense of their sleep. Because of the organizers' incompetence, an international sports festival has devolved into a stage that starkly exposes the reality that the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.


[email protected] Jeon Sang-il Reporter