The senior Korean football official responsible for hiring the men’s national team head coach insisted Monday he was assured of complete autonomy during what he claimed was a transparent process.
Lee Lim-saeng, technical director for the Korea Football Association (KFA), held a press conference Monday to discuss the appointment of Hong Myung-bo as the new bench boss for the senior men’s national team.
Lee was thrust into the lead role in the hiring process after Chung Hae-sung abruptly resigned as head of the KFA’s National Teams Committee on June 28.
A few other members of Chung’s committee also quit amid speculation that Chung had clashed with the KFA’s upper management, namely its president, Chung Mong-gyu, over their choice of candidates.
Chung Hae-sung was believed to have pushed for a Korean coach, while Chung Mong-gyu — no relations — apparently wanted a foreign national. And after the former stepped down, the KFA ended up hiring a Korean national in Hong, who has been head coach of the K League 1 club Ulsan HD FC since 2021.
Last year, Chung Mong-gyu was accused of disregarding the proper vetting process and using his authority to hire Jurgen Klinsmann as the men’s national team head coach. That move backfired in February this year when Klinsmann failed to take Korea to the top of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Asian Cup and was fired as a result.
Rejecting speculation that Chung had once again wielded his influence, Lee said the KFA boss was not involved at all.
“Once we narrowed down the list of candidates to three, I told President Chung Mong-gyu that I wanted to go meet all three,” Lee said. “And he told me one thing. He said, ‘You’re the technical director of the KFA. From now on, you should be making 추천 all the decisions.’ In fact, after I settled on Hong Myung-bo as the head coach, I didn’t even report that to the president. He gave me all the power to do the work, and I followed a transparent process to make this decision on my own. I don’t agree with the notion that something suspicious was going on.”
Lee said the KFA followed proper steps before putting him in charge of screening and interviewing coaching candidates after Chung Hae-sung’s resignation. With four National Teams Committee members dropping out, Lee said he had asked for and received approval from the remaining five members to go ahead with the process.
