The clock has stopped for Korean football. Having failed even the minimum task of qualifying for the North American World Cup, our national team has been pushed to the periphery of the global stage. The sense of disillusionment and anger felt by football fans in the face of this disastrous scorecard has reached a breaking point. It is a despair born from the total collapse of the trust that the Korean football community has built over the years. At the center of this massive sinking are two figures: President Chung Mong-gyu and Head Coach Hong Myung-bo. Their inappropriate actions and evasion of responsibility have shaken the very foundations of Korean football.
Under the leadership of President Chung, the Korea Football Association (KFA) has fallen into a quagmire of privatization. Despite being an organization that manages public assets, the KFA is not free from criticism that it has been operated like his private safe. The suspicion that President Chung has misused or opaquely executed KFA’s finances, rather than showing dedicated investment for the association’s development, has deeply hurt the hearts of fans. The KFA is not an individual's private property, and the national team is a public domain that symbolizes the pride of the people. Nevertheless, he has private-handedly seized control of the association from the pinnacle of power, damaging the fundamental principles of football administration.
The culmination of this abnormal administration was fully revealed in the process of appointing Coach Hong Myung-bo. Coach Hong was fundamentally unqualified for that position from the start. Seeing someone who was supposed to check the association’s corruption as an administrator move directly into the head coach position vividly demonstrated the moral hazard within the football world. What has he contributed to the national team as a coach? His tactical philosophy was absent, and communication was severed. His words and actions since taking office have been enough to incite public outrage. In particular, his consistent display of shamelessness, refusing to feel a shred of responsibility or acknowledge his mistakes even as the national team fell into an abyss, is beyond disappointing—it is astonishing.
Coach Hong’s attitude at the press conference was absurd. One could not read any sincerity or genuine reflection in his resignation statement. Instead, he acted like a victim, rubbing salt into the wounds of the public. The massive salary paid to an unproven coach came from the taxpayers' money. Does he truly deserve to keep the compensation he received after failing to achieve the goals and tarnishing the honor of Korean football? He has no justification to receive a single won. If he has any sense of shame, he should return all the compensation he received and offer a sincere apology.
What Korean football needs now is painful repentance toward change. President Chung Mong-gyu and Coach Hong Myung-bo must clearly face how much they have damaged the great history of Korean football. Taking responsibility does not end with simply stepping down from their positions. It must be predicated on a process of deep reflection on their mistakes and sincerely bowing their heads before football fans.
Korean football must no longer be used as a tool for someone’s private interest or incompetent power. Taking this incident as an opportunity, it is urgent to establish a transparent operational structure for the KFA and to reform the system so that verified individuals with integrity can lead the team. To revive fallen Korean football, the resignation of those at the center, followed by a bold innovation to cut out the festering wounds, is required. That is the only way for our football to regain the love of the people.
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