How far has South Korean football fallen? The humiliating legacy left by Hong Myung-bo: 'FIFA ranking plummet'

*This content was translated by AI.

One of the humiliating legacies left by former South Korean national football team head coach Hong Myung-bo after the 2026 FIFA World Cup in North America and the Caribbean is the decline in the FIFA ranking. Starting from the group stage elimination, the FIFA ranking, which had been at 25th place for the World Cup, fell out of the top 30. After the tournament, as other teams overtook each other in rankings, South Korea's position continued to drop, eventually reaching 32nd place. Among all teams currently ranked within the top 40 in real-time rankings, South Korea is the team that has fallen the most (7 positions) compared to last month.

At the time of Hong Myung-bo's debut match as head coach in September 2024, South Korean football was ranked 23rd in the FIFA ranking and consistently maintained a position between 22nd and 23rd. It was the third-highest-ranked team in Asia after Japan and Iran. At the end of last year, the FIFA ranking gained significant attention as it was used for seeding in the World Cup draw. As a result, South Korea proceeded with the World Cup group stage draw at 22nd place in the FIFA ranking. However, following defeats against Côte d'Ivoire and Austria just before the World Cup, the ranking dropped to 25th.

The real-time ranking briefly rose to 21st after a victory over Czech Republic in the first group stage match but plummeted again due to consecutive losses against Mexico and South Africa. FIFA rankings fluctuate based on the point difference between two teams' FIFA rankings and the tournament weighting factor. The World Cup finals carry the highest weighting among all tournaments that reflect FIFA ranking points. In particular, the defeat against South Africa, which would have allowed South Korea to advance to the Round of 32 even with a draw, resulted in a massive loss of 33.03 points due to the opponent's significantly lower FIFA ranking combined with the high weighting of the World Cup finals.

As a result, South Korea's real-time FIFA ranking fell to 30th place on the 26th of last month. This marks the first time since December 2021 under former coach Paulo Bento (Portugal), when the ranking dropped to 33rd, that South Korea's FIFA ranking has fallen into the 30s — a span of four and a half years. However, under Bento, the ranking consistently climbed, reaching 25th place alongside the team's advancement to the Round of 16 at the Qatar World Cup. In other words, while Bento had elevated South Korea's ranking to the top 20 through the Qatar World Cup, Hong Myung-bo's team regressed to the 30s in the World Cup four years later.

The problem is that as of the 7th, South Korea's ranking has fallen even further. While South Korea's position remains unchanged after completing the tournament, teams that were ranked lower than South Korea have moved up through the knockout stages. In international tournaments like the World Cup, a loss during the group stage reduces FIFA ranking points, but from the knockout stage onward, losses do not result in point deductions. During this process, Norway, which was ranked 31st, climbed to 19th place after advancing to the World Cup quarterfinals. Teams such as Côte d'Ivoire (31st) and Canada (30th), which were ranked below South Korea before the World Cup, are now ranked higher than South Korea.

In Asia, South Korea has dropped from third place before the World Cup to fourth. Japan moved up one position to 17th. Following Japan are Iran (22nd), Australia (28th), and then South Korea. The point gap between Japan, currently ranked first in Asia, and South Korea has widened to 114.96 points, and the gap with Australia is also significant. Instead of aiming for first place in Asia as once targeted, South Korea now faces the reality of needing to prepare immediately to reclaim third place in Asia. This is the legacy left by Hong Myung-bo's failure.

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*This content was translated by AI.