Why South Korea is going Bezerk over the National Team's coach
- Hong Myung Bo was the South Korean National Team's manager in the 2014 Brazil World Cup, when they suffered an embarrassing early exit with 1 draw and 2 Losses.
- After the exit, Hong and his staff from Korean Football Association were seen partying and dancing with "local women"
- Hong had to resign shortly after due to the scandal and abysmal national team record.
- South Korean national team had a streak of bad managers but settled on Paulo Bento in 2018. Bento brought advanced tactics and management not seen in the SK national team before.
- Even during Bento's tenure, much of KFA's leadership were dissatisfied with the presence of Bento, claiming that a foreigner has "taken a job deserved for a Korean manager"
- KFA refused to extend Bento's contract after they advanced to the round of 16 in the 2022 World Cup.
- SK fans were satisfied seeing how the national team performed in 2022 and hoped to continue the streak with a new, competent manager.
- KFA began searching for a new national team manager in 2024, and this entire hiring process was marred with corruption and nepotism never seen before.
- KFA is notorious for continuously adding useless senior executive memberships and cycling its "inner circle" of people to milk the salary and benefits from the organization. Hong is a member of this deep inner circle of KFA senior executives.
- Some of the top manager candidates, mostly recruited through the former national players' network, included David Wagner, Gus Poyet, and Jesse March, who prepared multiple rounds of interviews and presentation with clear vision of how the national team will be run, analysis of the SK national team, and the tactics they would employ accordingly.
- Most senior members of the KFA only recruited Korean managers, who either lacked the experience or tactical insight. Korean managers were also exempt from interviews and presentations. In the end, KFA proceeds to hire Hong again.
- Multiple whistleblowers, including former national team players now working for the KFA came forward about the biased hiring process.
- KFA as well as Korean Soccer league (K-League) is heavily subsidized by the taxpayer money. Following the general public's outrage over Hong's hiring, the government stepped in and the KFA senior leadership were summoned to the SK's National Assembly to testify.
- KFA refused to elaborate their decision process and continued regurgitating that Hong was "A Korean who understands the culture and the players", "Korean managers are as good as those foreigners", "Korean managers deserved to be paid and respected as much as those form Europe and South America"
- It was an outdated plea towards ethnocentric patriotism, which did not work this time - no one was convinced. However, the KFA threatened to involve FIFA if the SK government continued to wield "political influence" over the KFA
- South Koreans have been angry and frustrated over watching the blatant corruption and underwhelming performance for the past 2 years, and following an early exit this World Cup, all the pent up anger is finally coming out.
- This World Cup is most likely the last world cup with all members of the South Korean Golden Generation intact and uninjured. (Son, Lee Kang in, Kim Min Jae, Hwang In Beom, Lee Jae Sung, Jens Castrop, Hwang Hee Chan) - and Hong just blew it completely