[Official] There was no reversal of 'immigrant retention', and the Korea Football Association concluded that it was 're-confident' due to AG's will to lead

*This content was translated by AI.

There was no reversal. The Korea Football Association has decided to retain Lee Min-sung, coach of the U-23 national soccer team. Although the accompanying period was shortened to the Asian Games in Aichi and Nagoya (Japan) in September, not the Los Angeles (LA) Olympics two years later, the decision was made against the voice of the head coach change, which was as big as the long slump.

The Korea Football Association announced on the 13th that "After two meetings of the Power Reinforcement Committee after the 2026 Asian Football Confederation (AFC) U-23 Asian Cup, we decided that maintaining the continuity of the process so far is more suitable to achieve the gold medal goal than to prepare with a new system."

Instead, the contract with coach Lee Min-sung, who was until the 2028 LA Olympics when he took office last year, was reduced to the Asian Games in September. Apart from Lee Min-sung, the plan is to soon appoint a new head coach for the U-21 national team, which will prepare for the Olympics in two years. The Asian Games will be prepared under the U-23 national team led by head coach Lee Min-sung, and the Olympic qualifiers will be prepared under the new U-21 national team head coach two years later.

Despite the worst slump in the AFC U-23 Asian Cup last month, coach Lee Min-sung and coaches were highly willing to lead the Asian Games. Earlier, Lee Min-sung narrowly passed the group stage, losing 0-2 to two-year-old Uzbekistan (U-21) at a tournament in Saudi Arabia last month. In the semifinals, they also lost 0-1 to Japan, who played for the U-21 national team, and continued to lose to Vietnam for the first time in the third place match.

It was not just the result. The problem was that the team's tactical poor performance was repeated throughout the tournament, even considering the difficult overseas team transfer and Kang Sang-yoon's injury variables. Even Lee Min-sung has been sluggish for a long time since its launch last year, with consecutive losses of 0-4 and 0-2 in practice games against Saudi Arabia last year or 0-2 in friendly games with China.

Nevertheless, director Lee Min-sung had no intention of stepping down on his own. According to the Korea Football Association, coach Lee explained in detail the preparation process for the tournament, the preparation contents of each game, and the analysis and data of individual games, and even provided supplementary matters and improvement directions for the Asian Games. He explained that the process so far has been "the process of building and evaluating the player pool for the Asian Games gold medal," and even said he plans to move to a stage where he compresses the player pool and raises his organizational power in the future.

In response, the power reinforcement committee under Chairman Hyun Young-min pointed out the disappointment of the performance shown at the last Asian Cup, but failed to make a cool-headed decision in the face of the plan and will revealed by head coach Lee. The Korea Football Association explained the background of the decision to stay in office, saying, "As a result of the long-term review by the Korea Power Reinforcement Committee, the event was also meaningful in the process of confirming the pool of players that have been identified so far targeting the Asian Games in actual international competitions, amid various variables such as injuries to a number of major players and inability to be dispatched."

Coincidentally, it was the current power reinforcement committee under Chairman Hyun Young-min that appointed head coach Lee Min-sung as the head coach of the U-23 national team last year. At the time, Chairman Hyun Young-min revealed the background of Lee's appointment, saying, "I have my own clear philosophy about the game model, and I expressed my strong will and confidence in the manager's position through specific team management plans." Since then, amid the sluggish performance of Lee Min-sung, the power reinforcement committee of Chairman Hyun Young-min, who directly appointed director Lee Min-sung, decided to "re-trust." It is controversial whether objective evaluation of Lee Min-sung and a cool-headed decision were possible in the first place.

<© STARNEWS. All rights reserved. No reproduction or redistribution allowed.>

*This content was translated by AI.