No makeover, no future

Chung Jeh-won
The author is a culture and sports news director of the JoongAng Ilbo.

Stone-faced South Korean football legend Park Ji-sung joined the chorus of cynicism over the aptness of the Korea Football Association (KFA) and its unimaginative choice for the new commander of the Korean national team. Park said he was saddened by the circumstances when “the Korean national team has the best-ever players in its history” and called for KFA Chairman Chung Mong-gyu to resign from office.

The choice of Hong Myung-bo, manager of K League 1 champion Ulsan HD, drew ululations of disapproval and apprehension from fans and former Korean squad members like Park, Lee Young-pyo and Lee Chun-soo, who had played in the 2002 FIFA World Cup where Hong had captained to a historical fourth-place finish, as well as former Ulsan HD player Park Joo-ho who is a member of the KFA selection committee. All of them questioned the appropriateness in the appointment procedure.

Korea’s football is in a train wreck. The national team exited the Asian Cup last February after an ignominious defeat to 87th-ranked Jordon in the semifinal, which cut short the contract of head coach Jurgen Klinsmann. In April, the national team was defeated by Indonesia and lost a ticket to compete at the Paris Summer Olympics for the first time in 40 years. The administering performance was as dismal as the play on the field. The KFA spent five months trying to court foreign coaches but ended up settling for a candidate from home. As Park pointed out, the foundation of Korean football is buckling.

The implosion owes largely to a leadership crisis. The KFA lacks a core, but no one take responsibility — the KFA chair, national team’s director nor the head coach.

The organization issued a short statement of regret on their homepage after the Taeguk Warriors failed to grab the 10th consecutive ticket to the Olympics, turning a deaf ear to the simmering angst and anger of the Korean public who has deep pride and affection for the sport.

Chung Hae-sung — the National Team Committee head responsible for the present and future of national football — is missing. He suddenly resigned last month while the search for the manager had been still ongoing. The KFA did not offer any explanations during the disarray.

The football association landed on Hong after wasting five months searching for a foreign candidate, leaving fans wondering about the sudden turnaround.

The team under foreign coach Klinsmann had been a mess, shamefully exposed through Lee Kang-in’s tantrum against captain Son Heung-min shortly before the important Asian Cup semifinal match in Qatar. The 23-year-old Paris Saint-Germain player’s swing at Son — who is 10 years older than him and captains both the national team and British Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur — dealt a crushing blow to Korean football’s reputation and teamwork. The defeat to Jordan was an immediate result. The internal racket could not have been possible if Klinsmann had exercised full command over the house. We still remember Guus Hiddink throwing his fist in the air every time his boys made a crucial goal at the 2002 World Cup, but we never heard any of the players throwing one at each other at the time.

Korean soccer has descended to crisis due to the lack of an established system. The selection of a new head coach relied on individual judgement instead of a systematic mechanism. Park Joo-ho, a KFA selection committee member, exposed that the opinions of the members on the national team committee were ignored during the selection process.

New KFA Technical Director Lee Lim-saeng took the helm after the sudden exit of the head of the National Teams Committee. Lee flew to Europe to interview two candidates. Upon his return, he went straight to Hong Myung-bo’s house to make a proposal. While announcing the appointment of Hong Myung-bo as the new manager, Lee stressed that the choice was entirely his. Where was the KFA chairman doing during this process? Should the selection of a national team head coach be so sloppy?

While proclaiming “Japan’s Way,” the country vowed to design a 30-year roadmap to strengthen national competitiveness in the sport. Its goal is to host the 2050 World Cup alone and win the No. 1 title. Meanwhile, Korea cannot even appoint a head coach properly. Pop culture, food and many Korean brands are loved by people around the world. Yet Korean football has become an embarrassment as manifested by its cursory selection of the team manager. Without an entirely new makeover, Korea’s soccer has no future.