Soccer Newspaper: Overwhelmed with Debt + KFA Chairman Jung Mong-Kui Summoned – Korean Football Association Plunges into “Comprehensive Crisis”

The Soccer Newspaper journalist Han Bing wrote that on August 23, multiple South Korean media outlets reported that the South Korean National Assembly’s Culture, Sports and Tourism Committee will hold a hearing primarily to investigate whether there were any violations in the recent selection process of the national team’s coach. The hearing is scheduled for September 10, with summonses issued to Jung Mong-Kui, Hong Myung-Pyo, and others to attend.

Hong Myung-Pyo’s appointment not only made the Korean Football Association’s (KFA) promise to hire a foreign coach look hollow but also exposed by Park Joo-Ho, a member of the Strengthening Combat Power Committee responsible for the selection, that the entire committee was not consulted during the selection process. Furthermore, South Korean media uncovered that four years ago, when Jung Mong-Kui was re-elected as the chairman of the KFA, the related scoring was unreasonable. The KFA’s annual budget is as high as 18 billion won, with only 1.2 billion won donated by Jung Mong-Kui; the annual budget of the Korean Archery Association is only 1.2 billion won, yet the association chairman donated 3.6 billion won. Despite the donations from the two associations’ chairmen differing by three times and their contributions to their respective associations being vastly different, both received the same financial contribution score (25 points) from the Korean Sports Council.

The KFA had as many as 232 violations during the same period but still received a perfect score of 10 points in the “Group Operation Health Evaluation” by the Korean Sports Council, while the Archery Association had only 2 violations but received only 6 points. Against the backdrop of the Korean archery team sweeping all gold medals at the Paris Olympics and the men’s football team missing out on the Olympics for the first time in 40 years, the media’s “retrospective accountability” is leading to questioning the legitimacy of the procedures for Jung Mong-Kui’s re-election as KFA chairman.

Moreover, the financial status of the KFA is also under investigation. The KFA opened a bank account with an unauthorized deficit of 61.5 billion won (approximately 330 million RMB) without approval, and it still owes former coach Klinsmann a total of 7.5 million USD in breach of contract fees (approximately 1 billion won). The South Korean Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism has already stated that it will conduct a comprehensive audit and investigation into the KFA’s financial situation. If Klinsmann takes the KFA to FIFA, FIFA might deem the KFA to be under government interference, which could result in the worst-case scenario where Korean football is banned from all international competitions by FIFA.

Although this possibility is minimal, this unprecedented crisis will still greatly impact the Korean football world. At the very least, during the period when Hong Myung-Pyo and the Korean national team players are engaged in the 18-team tournament, they will be affected by the scandal surrounding the KFA.