Shame on the Korea Football Association

Chung Jeh-won
The author is the cultural and sports news editor of the JoongAng Ilbo.

After a chain of sad episodes with the men’s national teams, I have to ask: For whom does the Korea Football Association (KFA) exist? The Taegeuk Warriors, under manager Jurgen Klinsmann, dropped out of the AFC Asian Cup in Qatar last February after a humiliating semifinal loss to Jordan, which was ranked 87th on FIFA scale — 64 places below them.

“Disaster” could be a better word, as the team played “zombie football” throughout the tournament. The defeat was shocking as Korea had never lost to the Middle East country until then. The pitiful performance followed a physical brawl between two star players — Son Heung-min and Lee Kang-in — the night before the match. The conflict between the two players exacerbated disappointment in the national team.

The second calamity took place at the AFC U-23 Asian Cup quarterfinal last month when the U-23 team, under manager Hwang Sun-hong, lost to a debuting Indonesian squad. As a result, Korea lost a direct ticket to the Olympics for the first time in 40 years. The younger team’s shameful 11-10 loss to Indonesia in a penalty shootout after a 2-2 draw coincidentally took place in Doha, Qatar.

The KFA wiggled out after issuing a short apology for the two disasters in Doha. In a statement on its homepage, it said the team had done “its best but regretfully failed to achieve the goal of ascending to the Olympics for the 10th straight time.” It added it would closely reexamine the training system for players and coaches as well as the operating methods of the national team in order to not repeat such failures.

But the KFA’s reckoning is not desperate enough. It must seriously ask itself whether it has done its best. It seated Hwang Sun-hong as temporary head coach after sacking Klinsmann. Hwang had to manage both a U-23 team ahead of the Olympics-qualifying Asian Cup and the national team facing World Cup qualification matches. Even if it was a “temporary” position, we cannot help but ask if the selection was the right move. No one doubts Hwang’s excellent leadership, but there were many other formidable candidates. Park Hang-seo, the former manager of Vietnam’s national football team, is one, as he is well versed in Southeast Asian football.

The KFA, under Chung Mong-gyu, shows no remorse or shame after its series of pratfalls. Nobody has come forward to take responsibility. It merely cut off its tail –— the manager — to keep its body safe. The C-suite, including the president, remains intact despite its publicized skirmish among players and humiliating losses to underdogs. The KFA promised not to “repeat” its mistakes, but it has not specified how. The statement could be mere rhetoric as it lacks a vision or action plan.

Its Japanese counterpart stands in contrast. In 2022, the Japan Football Association (JPA) declared a vision called “Japan’s Way,” outlining plans to host and win the 2050 World Cup. The JPA has been seeking out and grooming promising talent by age group and uncovering capable coaches.

France, as a soccer powerhouse, has an established training system. The French Football Federation (FFF) set up the National Center of Football in Clairefontaine on the outskirts of Paris in 1988. The football academy was co-funded by the FFF and the Professional Football League. The systematic governing and training institution led to France’s victory in the 2018 World Cup in Russia and second-place finish at the 2022 competition in Qatar.

We don’t see such a long-term vision or effort from the KFA. The association plans to open a national football center in Cheonan, South Chungcheong, next year, but it has yet to present a master plan for the project. Seating a foreign manager does not guarantee the national team’s advancement to the 2026 World Cu, which will be jointly held in the United States, Canada and Mexico.

Some could ask: Why the fuss about the national team’s performance? But few Koreans will be happy if their national team misses the World Cup after losing out to historically weaker competitors like China, Indonesia and Thailand. Football is a universal language, and it epitomizes national capabilities.

The KFA had an annual budget of 124.9 billion won ($91.8 million) in 2022, of which 36.6 billion won came from government coffers and 22.1 billion won from sports lotteries. In other words, half of its budget comes from taxpayers. If the organization cannot live up to the public’s expectations, it will only invite government intervention.