Nat’l football body defends controversial hiring of men’s head coach, rejects favoritism charges

Besieged by criticism over its recent hiring of the new men’s national team head coach, the Korea Football Association (KFA) defended its selection process Monday while rejecting charges of favoritism.

The KFA posted a chronology on its website detailing the process leading to its hiring of Hong Myung-bo as the new men’s bench boss, and also uploaded a “Q&A” item to offer answers to questions surrounding the legitimacy of Hong’s appointment.

The KFA named Hong, then head coach of the K League 1 club Ulsan HD FC, as the new men’s head coach on July 7. His appointment was formally approved by the KFA’s board of directors in a vote that ran for three days, from July 10 to 12.

The KFA had been trying to fill the men’s coaching vacancy since firing Jurgen Klinsmann in February. It interviewed a few foreign-born candidates and even came close to hiring an American tactician Jesse Marsch in May before the former Leeds United coach took the Canadian men’s head coaching position.

The KFA continued to review candidacies of foreign coaches but did a quick about-face and gave Hong the reins.

Critics quickly argued that the KFA wasted five months going over foreign candidates only for show, when it had Hong in mind all along, and that the KFA disregarded its own vetting process to hire a coach to the liking of its chief, Chung Mong-gyu.

The fact that the KFA hired Hong after only a brief meeting with the KFA’s technical director Lee Lim-saeng, raised eyebrows. Foreign candidates had to do hours of interviews and give presentations on their football philosophy and tactics, while Hong wasn’t asked to do the same.

Park Joo-ho, a former player who had served on the KFA’s National Teams Committee, which was put in charge of the hiring process, claimed in a YouTube video that many of his fellow committee members kept pushing for a Korean-born head coach and refused to even consider foreign candidates. Park also said he was not informed of the KFA’s selection of Hong beforehand and he found out about the appointment while recording the clip that has generated over 3.4 million views.

The public anger reached a point where the sports ministry decided last week to launch an audit into the KFA’s operations.

Against this backdrop, the KFA said Monday it had not committed any wrongdoing during its selection process.

On charges that the KFA gave Hong a free pass because he didn’t have to give any presentation, the football federation said, “Members of the National Teams Committee were very familiar with the coaching philosophy and careers of all Korean candidates, and so we didn’t require any additional materials from them. Hong was the No. 1 candidate among Korean coaches from the very beginning.”

“Coach Hong had led Ulsan to back-to-back K League 1 championships and had already proven his abilities,” the statement continued. “The committee members agreed that if they were hiring a Korean coach, it had to be Hong.”

The KFA noted that before Lee’s meeting with Hong, one foreign candidate prepared a 22-page presentation along with 16 video clips for his interview, while another came with 16 pages of material.

“However, the amounts of these materials do not serve as evidence for these coaches’ abilities,” the KFA added. “Our technical director Lee Lim-saeng was not convinced that these candidates’ tactical choices would fit well with the KFA’s technical philosophy.”

The KFA said it was prepared to pick one of those two foreign candidates if Lee’s meeting with Hong hadn’t taken place. Lee waited for Hong outside the coach’s home on the night of July 5, after Hong had coached Ulsan in a K League contest earlier that evening.

“In their meeting, Lee and Hong discussed how to best run the national team and how to build connectivity between national teams in different age groups,” the KFA said. “Lee was able to confirm Hong’s willingness to execute our plans. Based on that, he offered Hong the head coach position.”

Hong is currently traveling to Europe to interview candidates for assistant positions on his backroom staff, and he has also met with South Korean national team mainstays plying their trade in Europe.

He met with longtime captain Son Heung-min in London last week, and then sat down with Germany-based players, Kim Min-jae and Lee Jae-sung, over the weekend.

The KFA said Hong connected with midfielder Hwang In-beom and defender Seol Young-woo in Belgrade. They are teammates on the Serbian club Crvena zvezda.

Hong is expected to return to South Korea later this week and add Korean coaches to his staff. He will likely announce his choices at a press conference next week.