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Koreans wary of taking cheer out of cheerleading

Millions of red-clad South Korean fans brought cities to a standstill during the 2002 World Cup finals on home soil and their vibrant, if highly regimented, chants and songs are one of the most colourful aspects of World Cups finals.

However, the organisation behind the Red Devils says fans have been relying on old material for far too long and their performance at recent warm-up games showed they need to freshen things up.

"As shown in the warm-up match against Belarus, overseas Koreans have limited access to the latest styles of cheering," said Park Chang-hyun, the overseas cheering department head of the Red Devils.

"(The Red Devils) started as a small organisation made up of genuine football lovers. Now we have abundant know-how of effective cheering activities, we will not let them be a bind for those who will be joining us in the stadiums," he told the Korea Times newspaper.

"It is likely to take some time for supporters to get used to shouting out the new slogan," said the 41-year-old, adding that they will belt out some of the old favourites before serving up the latest chants.

"So we will start to liven up the mood first with popular slogans such as "Daehanminguk" (Republic of Korea) or "Oh, pilseung Korea (Oh, victorious Korea)."

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