Photo : YONHAP News
Rival parties on the National Assembly’s Culture, Sports and Tourism Committee uniformly chastised the Korea Football Association(KFA) over alleged irregularities in the controversial appointment of Hong Myung-bo as head coach of the men’s national team.
At a committee session on Tuesday, lawmakers from both sides grilled the KFA about the procedural legitimacy of a meeting of the governing body’s Technical Development Committee, where technical director Lee Lim-saeng was granted authority to oversee the head coach appointment.
Then-committee chief, Chung Hae-sung, who had singled out Hong as the right person to head the national team when recommending him and two other candidates to KFA President Chung Mong-gyu, abruptly resigned, handing over the appointment authority to Lee.
The main opposition Democratic Party(DP) accused the KFA of illegally conducting the meeting in question and giving the authority to Lee against its regulations, then pushing ahead with Hong’s appointment without required procedures including submitting application and holding an interview.
The ruling People Power Party(PPP) asked one of then-technical committee members, Park Joo-ho, whether he was unaware voting on what he at the time believed was to finalize the candidate was meant to select the new head coach, to which Park replied, “yes.”
Hong, who appeared as a witness, told the press during a break that he does not think that there was neither unfairness nor preferential treatment in his appointment, adding that he had accepted the role after the technical committee placed him as the top candidate.