Football or farce? Inside the Hong Myung-bo appointment saga.

Football

Published: 10 Jul. 2024, 17:05 Updated: 10 Jul. 2024, 17:08

Football or farce? Inside the Hong Myung-bo appointment saga.

Hong Myung-bo reacts while coaching Ulsan HD in a game against Jeju United at Munsu Football Stadium in Ulsan on July 21, 2023. [NEWS1]

It wouldn't be a Korea Football Association decision if it didn't become a hugely controversial one.

Even as Korea reels from a national case of whiplash caused by a sudden and dramatic managerial search pivot from somewhere in Europe to the industrial city of Ulsan, it's become clear that the sudden expected change in candidate is only the very tip of an increasingly dirty iceberg.

Criticism surrounding what appears to have been a unilateral decision by KFA Technical Director Lee Lim-saeng to appoint Hong Myung-bo as Korean national team manager took off Monday after selection committee member Park Joo-ho revealed in a YouTube video that he was unaware of plans to appoint Hong and heard about it through the news — his reaction caught live on camera.

The video appears to have been filmed on Sunday as news of Hong's appointment broke, but was posted to Park's official YouTube channel Monday.

In the video, Park is joined by football commentator Kim Hwan and the two speak about the KFA’s process of appointing a new permanent manager — a post that was vacant for the past five months — when they hear the Hong news.

Park’s reaction — a combination of shock and confusion that, if nothing else, ensured his channel got a good few hits — told a clear story that he was not involved in the appointment process despite being part of the selection committee, also known as the National Team Committee, formed in February with the mandate of hiring a new permanent manager.

KFA National Team Committee member Park Joo-ho, right, reacts after being told while filming a YouTube video on Sunday that Hong Myung-bo has been appointed as Korean national team manager. [SCREEN CAPTURE]

Instead, Technical Director Lee — who took the baton after former National Team Committee head Chung Hae-sung resigned a couple of weeks ago, despite not actually being appointed as a new head of the committee — finished a jaunt around Europe where he was supposed to be meeting with final candidates, flew back to Korea, drove to Ulsan and apparently single-handedly decided to appoint his old colleague Hong to Korean football's most important job.

In fact, it turns out Hong never even interviewed for the job.

When asked by broadcaster KBS on Wednesday about the hiring process, Lee said: “It’d be more correct to say that I sincerely asked him for a favor. He was one of the top candidates picked by the technical committee. I had enough information.”

As if that is not enough, it's still unclear exactly when Hong is starting this role. Lee plucked him from K League club Ulsan HD — in the middle of the season and now home to some incredibly unhappy fans — but as of press time, Hong is still expected to be on the touchline when Ulsan face Gwangju on Wednesday evening.

In fact, Ulsan HD say Hong will remain in charge for the time being, although how that's possibly going to work and how long it's going to last is unclear (Sir Alex Ferguson once managed both Aberdeen and Scotland and Guus Hiddink did the same with PSV and Australia, but it's hardly a recommended strategy).

So for anybody still trying to keep score, here's how we ended up in this mess.

Shortlisting managers (February to March)

This all started back when Jurgen Klinsmann (remember him?) was fired from the national team manager job on Feb. 16. The national team selection committee was formed on Feb. 20, featuring the likes of Chung Hae-sung, Park and other officials who may or may not have found themselves sidelined over the last week, like Gimpo FC manager Ko Jeong-woon.

The committee reportedly considered hiring an active K League manager like Ulsan HD boss Hong or FC Seoul manager Kim Gi-dong in February, but faced an immediate and understandable backlash from Korean football fans who were not keen on their managers being stolen weeks before the season started or the league being so obviously disrespected.

Hong Myung-bo watches as Ulsan HD face Gwangju at Gwangju Football Stadium in Gwangju on May 15. [YONHAP]

The committee instead appointed then-U-23 national team boss Hwang Sun-hong as a caretaker for two 2026 World Cup qualifiers in March.

Start from scratch, again (April to May)

After Hwang left the interim position, Chung said on April 2 that the committee would start interviewing 11 managers — four Korean and seven foreign coaches — and appoint a permanent manager by early or mid-May.

He did not specify whether the four Korean managers had active posts in the K League.

Some reports said that Jesse Marsh, Senol Gunes and Jesus Casas were on the radar, but none of the talks with alleged candidates went through. The KFA missed its self-imposed deadline and appointed Kim Do-hoon as another caretaker for the final two second-round 2026 World Cup qualifiers in June.

Shortlisting managers, again (June to early July)

Upon Kim’s departure from the interim post, Chung told Korean wire service News 1 on June 14 that the selection committee had chosen 12 candidates out of 98 applicants, although he did not mention names.

Two weeks later, Chung was gone.

Chung announced his resignation on June 28 and some members of the committee also expressed their intent to step down a few days later. A KFA official told the Korea JoongAng Daily on July 2 that “not all committee members” made the same call and the committee taken over by Technical Director Lee was in the process of hiring a new manager.

Lee departed for Europe on July 2 and interviewed a candidate on July 3 and another candidate the following day, but he returned to Korea after failed talks.

Upon his return, he met with Hong on July 5, and the KFA announced Hong as a new permanent manager on July 7. All of this despite Hong having spent months saying he had no interest in taking the national team job, criticizing the KFA selection process and, just a few days earlier, saying that if Lee came to Ulsan he'd go to Seoul to avoid the confrontation.

Lee did not say whom he interviewed in Europe during a press conference — held to explain the reason behind the appointment of Hong — at the KFA House in central Seoul on Monday, but former Greek national team manager Gus Poyet and ex-Norwich City boss David Wagner were reportedly on the radar.

David Wagner gives instructions to his players while managing Norwich City in an FA Cup match against Liverpool at Anfield in Liverpool on Jan. 28. [AP/YONHAP]

Who made the call?

Lee said during Monday’s press conference that he told five selection committee members that he had made a final call about the appointment and had them agree to his decision, indicating that he was not the sole figure behind the appointment of Hong.

But former KFA Vice President Lee Young-pyo told broadcaster JTBC, an affiliate of the Korea JoongAng Daily, on Tuesday that the KFA had asked Poyet, Wagner and Hong if they were interested in the job and were supposed to call a meeting of the selection committee to make a final decision. Lee Young-pyo said Lee Lim-saeng just skipped the entire process and single-handedly appointed Hong.

Korea Football Association Technical Director Lee Lim-saeng speaks at a press conference in central Seoul on Monday. [YONHAP]

Over all of this also hangs the specter of Chung Mong-gyu, the much-maligned chairman of the KFA. Chung, who has long been public enemy No. 1 in Korean football for a string of controversial, high-handed and questionable decisions — Klinsmann, for example — is generally assumed to be pulling all the strings at the KFA and, crucially, used to be the president of Ulsan HD and is a member of the Chung family that own the Hyundai corporation — including Ulsan HD owner HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering.

Whether Chung has had anything directly to do with the appointment remains unclear, but Hong suddenly reversing his decision on the national team, controlled by a prominent member of the Hyundai Chung family, while being employed by a Hyundai affiliate, is more than enough fuel for the conspiracy theorist fire.

Wagner and Poyet

As well as all that controversy, there are growing concerns over how managerial candidates David Wagner and Guy Poyet were treated.

According to some Korean reports, Wagner, a Jürgen Klopp protégé who led Huddersfield to the Premier League, was keen enough on the Korea job to prepare a 50-page report on how he would lead the team, accept the relatively low salary and agree to move permanently to Korea (a point of contention during the Klinsmann era).

Despite that commitment, the first Wagner heard about Hong's appointment was, apparently, on the news.

Lee was, perhaps, too busy running around Ulsan looking for Hong to make a courtesy call.

BY PAIK JI-HWAN, JIM BULLEY AND MARY YANG [paik.jihwan@joongang.co.kr]