Home > Sports > Football

Sports Ministry refuses to back down on call for Korean football chief to be suspended

Published: 02 Jan. 2025, 17:21

PAIK JI-HWAN
[email protected]

Korea Footall Association President Chung Mong-gyu speaks during a press conference at the Pony Chung Foundation building in central Seoul on Dec 19. [NEWS1]

The Sports Ministry announced Thursday that it will not reconsider its position that KFA President Chung Mong-gyu should be suspended for his alleged involvement in two controversial Korean national team managerial appointments.

The ministry said through a press release that it rejects the KFA’s request that it reconsider the suggestion that Chung is suspended and its position on the seven issues where it found irregularities in an investigation that ended in November last year.

The ministry launched a probe into the KFA for perceived irregular practices in the appointment process of current national team manager Hong Myung-bo and demanded on Nov. 5 last year that the KFA suspend Chung for his involvement in the appointment procedures of Hong and his predecessor Jurgen Klinsmann.

The ministry said that former National Team Committee Head Michael Muller wrote the manager candidate list even before the selection committee was formed, and Chung, who should have no formal involvement in the selection of managers, interviewed two candidates himself. The KFA then announced Klinsmann as the national team boss.

As for the appointment of Hong, the ministry said that Chung instructed Technical Director Lee Lim-saeng to take charge of the process and led him to appoint Hong on his own, even though Lee should also have no role in the appointment process.

But the ministry does not have the authority to suspend Chung directly, instead calling on the KFA to do so. The KFA refused the demand and asked the ministry to reconsider, with Chung defying his critics and announcing his intention to run for a fourth term as KFA president.

The KFA is required to report to the ministry how it has handled the punishment requests within a month.

The Korean football governing body will also have to give the ministry an update on six other matters that the ministry demanded it revise or take action about, including the way the KFA handled the National Football Center construction process, the KFA granting banned football figures a pardon and giving part-time board members consulting fees.

BY PAIK JI-HWAN [[email protected]]