On the 2nd of last month, the Korea Football Association issued a press release and immediately refuted when the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism said in an interim audit announcement on the appointment of a national team coach that “there is a defect in the process of appointing a national team coach.”
“The Ministry of Culture and Sports said that director Lee Im-saeng, who does not have the authority to recommend the director, pushed for the director’s decision to appoint the director, which was not recommended by the Korea Electric Power Reinforcement Committee (KCC), but Lee Im-saeng met and negotiated with the previously recommended candidate while the committee’s work was completed,” he explained.
“The June 30 provisional online meeting (11th All-Power Committee meeting) was not a formal meeting of the All-Power Committee, but a meeting to share the situation. Considering that the members of the all-power committee have already delegated the full authority of supervisory recommendation to the chairman through the 10th meeting, this meeting is difficult to see as a meeting of the nature that can proceed with the delegation act,” he said.
Regarding the ministry’s announcement that it gave Hong “preferential treatment” unlike other candidates, he said, “Lee waited for four to five hours near his home, when meeting with foreign directors, as many as four members of the association visit the European city where they are staying to meet in line with their schedule, despite their efforts to spend several days on business trips. It cannot be called preferential treatment.”
However, the ministry concluded that there were violations of procedures and negative operations in the process of appointing a coach during the continuous audit. In addition, the ministry said in the final announcement of a specific audit on Monday that it confirmed a total of 27 cases of illegal and unfair handling, including the appointment of national team leaders, unfair handling of soccer players’ pardons and unfair management of soccer leaders’ classes. The audit team conducted the audit in writing and through questions.
It is all the more shocking that the appointment of not only the men’s adult national team but also the entire national team leader was inappropriate. According to the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism’s announcement, 42 out of 43 leaders appointed from 10 national teams, including the men’s adult national team, did not go through the process of appointing the board of directors as of September 2024, and those who did not have the authority to appoint, such as technical headquarters and coaches, were involved in the final appointment, violating the process of appointing leaders.
The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism explained, “As a result of examining the current status of national team leaders by men’s and women’s age, it was found that the Korea Football Association violated the minimum qualification system under the “Leader Education Regulations” by appointing them as national team leaders on the grounds that they had related degrees, qualifications and experience.”
“In order to improve the problems exposed in the process of appointing the national soccer team coach, specific individuals cannot exercise their authority to appoint leaders when recommending national team leaders, and in order to increase the procedural justification and fairness of the selection process, related regulations including the function, composition, decision and decision quorum, and decision-making fairness of the Power Reinforcement Committee and the Technology Development Committee were prepared.” Since there is no stipulated selection standard, the “national leader selection standard,” which is controversial about the fairness of recommending leaders, also called for “system improvement” to collect demands from the field.
“We demanded heavy disciplinary action against three key people (in the process of appointing the national team coach), including Chairman Chung Mong-gyu, Vice-Chairman Chung, and Technical Director,” Choi said. “The appointment of Hong Myung-bo as the national team coach was made unfair and opaquely recommended by those without authority,” adding, “As procedural defects have been confirmed, the National Power Reinforcement Committee has notified the association to find ways to heal the defects by itself, such as recommending candidates again and appointing them at the board of directors.”
When asked what “severe disciplinary action beyond suspension of qualification” was imposed on Chung, Choi said, “According to the disciplinary regulations of the national officials, the self-audit stipulates that when demanding disciplinary action, a disciplinary action can be taken separately from a light disciplinary action. According to the regulations of the Korea Football Association’s Fair Trade Commission, expulsion, dismissal, and suspension of qualification for suspension or higher are considered severe disciplinary action. I think we can decide between these three.”
“The chairman of the Korea Football Association is an important position that represents the Korea Football Association and oversees its administrative affairs. Therefore, he has the responsibility to abide by the rules and procedures of the Korea Football Association and respect the board of directors more than anyone else. Nevertheless, as shown in the audit report, he made unfair instructions or violated his own rules in the process of appointing a coach for the national team. Even during the process of pardoning, the committee abolished the pardoning process and pushed for a pardon despite being guided by the Korea Sports Council. This process is equivalent to grounds for disciplinary action under the rules of the Korea Football Association’s Fair Trade Commission. We judged that severe disciplinary action is inevitable beyond the suspension of qualifications.”
If the Korea Football Association’s Sports Fair Committee judges that disciplinary action is not appropriate, when asked if there is another measure, the problem department said, “We are not recommending disciplinary action, we are asking for it. It is an audit conducted in accordance with the law. The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism has the authority to demand disciplinary action, and the authority rests with the Korea Football Association’s Fair Committee. I expect the Korea Football Association to make a desirable judgment according to the public’s perspective. If that does not happen, I will tell you that we will use all the policies that we can use until the Korea Football Association is reborn as an organization that can make fair and normal judgments.”
If it is not implemented, the implementation audit can be conducted once more. When a soft disposition is made, the sports department, which is the supervision department, has a number of policies. We will consult with the Ministry of Sports and collect public opinion until the 먹튀검증 Korea Football Association stands right away. Through this audit, many people love soccer and are disappointed in the Korea Football Association, because they do not comply with regulations and procedures and handle everything administratively conveniently. The board diagnosed itself that failure to do its part was the cause of the arbitrary administration. The audit team also believes that. The results of this audit judged that the Korea Football Association could stand right away and restore public trust by fixing the chronic ills through such diagnosis.
