*This content was translated by AI.
The situation remains unresolved. With former coach Hong Myung-bo having resigned in disgrace over responsibility for the team's failure to advance from the group stage at the 2026 FIFA World Cup in North, Central America and Caribbean, the South Korean national football team is once again facing a chaotic operation under an interim coaching system.
The Korea Football Association (KFA) announced on the 24th that it held its sixth board meeting at the Seoul Jongno-gu Football Hall, approving both the operational direction for the upcoming presidential election and the procedure for appointing an interim coach for the men's national team.
In accordance with the day's board resolution, the association decided to conduct a public recruitment in corporate form, grouping the head coach and coaching staff together, in line with the Korea Sports Council's regulations on national team selection and operation. The candidates will include coaches from both domestic and international backgrounds, with the term lasting until the FIFA A-match period in November this year. Detailed conditions will be announced through a future public notice.
The November A-matches represent this year's final schedule, with Korean football set to play four matches in September-October and two in November. As the KFA indicated, limiting the interim coach appointment only until November means that a permanent head coach may only be secured just one or two months before the Asian Cup, or in the worst-case scenario, the team could face an unprecedented administrative disaster by competing in the Asian Cup under an interim coaching system.
On the surface, this appears to be an administrative procedure adhering to legal and procedural standards, yet anxiety within the football community and among fans has reached its peak. With the AFC Asian Cup set to open in Saudi Arabia next January, only six months away, there is a bizarre atmosphere where time is being wasted with an interim coach despite lacking a proper permanent head coach.
Especially this year's Asian Cup is highly likely to be Son Heung-min's (LAFC) de facto last dance for the South Korean national team captain, given his age. Despite possessing a historic lineup including Son Heung-min, Lee Kang-in (Paris Saint-Germain), Kim Min-jae (Bayern Munich), and Hwang In-beom (FC Porto), Korea already failed miserably in the CONCACAF World Cup qualifiers. This is why sighs of frustration are rising over the crisis of potentially wasting this golden generation's final opportunity at the upcoming Asian Cup due to the KFA's incompetent administration.
Even more frustrating is that the association cannot even secure a proven candidate who has expressed interest in the head coach position. While former Brazil national team coach Paulo Bento, who previously led Korea, and Gus Poyet, former Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors coach, are reportedly interested in the South Korean national team head coach role, the KFA's administrative machinery remains completely stalled.
Some are criticizing that the root cause of this chaos lies in the leadership vacuum following the resignation of Chung Mong-gyu Jeon (Chairman) and the KFA's Power Strengthening Committee's evasive administration regarding head coach appointments.
Although the board meeting was held after the Korea Sports Council approved Lee Yong-soo as acting president, criticism arises that internal administrative bodies within the association, including the Power Strengthening Committee, have consistently shown reluctance to appoint a permanent head coach. This is seen as reflecting an underlying motive: in a leadership vacuum without a president, prematurely appointing a permanent coach could result in all responsibility and blame falling on them if the outcome is unfavorable.
This KFA practice of rotating interim coaches is not unprecedented. The national team already experienced severe turmoil in 2024 before Hong Myung-bo's appointment, when it failed to secure a permanent head coach after Jurgen Klinsmann's dismissal and was forced to repeatedly appoint interim commanders.
At that time, the KFA dismissed Coach Klinsmann just one year into his tenure and pledged to appoint a permanent coach by May. While names such as Jesse Marsch and Senol Gunes were mentioned as candidates for the next head coach, the association ultimately failed to secure a permanent coach due to its lack of negotiating power.
Ultimately, the KFA forced through an abnormal operation where both March and June A-matches were conducted under an interim head coach system. At that time, Hwang Sun-hong (currently Daejeon Hana Citizen), who was leading the U-23 national team, was hastily appointed as interim commander for the senior national team and played two matches against Thailand (one win, one draw), which caused a fatal disruption to Yeon Ryeong-byeol (CEO) team operations. As a consequence of this dual-role situation, the Hwang Sun-hong-led U-23 team lost to Indonesia in the AFC Asian Cup quarterfinals in April, suffering a tragedy by failing to qualify for the Olympic Games finals for the first time in 40 years.
In the following June, interim coach Kim Do-hoon led two World Cup second-round qualifiers to victory with two wins, yet even then, the limitations of the interim head coach system were clearly exposed, as even captain Son Heung-min repeatedly emphasized the importance of appointing a permanent coach.
However, Jeong Jak (CEO) team remains neglected in an era of darkness without leadership for about two years now. Despite the Asian Cup, a major international tournament, approaching, Korea's football future continues to drift due to the casual administration that seeks to merely get by with temporary measures.
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*This content was translated by AI.
