"20 Meetings in 5 Months... I Thought It Wasn't Hong Myung-bo," Park Joo-ho Reveals

"Interim National Team Coach Also Decided by Majority Vote" Bold Statement

Park Joo-ho, a member of the Korea Football Association's Strengthening Committee (37), expressed his frustration, saying he never expected Coach Hong Myung-bo (55) to take charge of the South Korea A national team.

Committee Member Park: "Even before the meeting started, there was talk of 'Wouldn't a domestic coach be better?'... My opinions were dismissed because I haven't been a coach"

Joo-ho Park, Member of the Korea Football Association's Team Strengthening Committee. [Image source: YouTube video capture]

On the 8th, Committee Member Park revealed behind-the-scenes stories about the appointment of the South Korean national football team coach through his YouTube channel as a member of the Strengthening Committee. Since February, Park has been working on the coach selection process within the Strengthening Committee led by former chairman Jeong Hae-seong. Despite holding more than 20 meetings over five months discussing foreign coach candidates, Park was taken aback when he saw news that Coach Hong had been appointed as the national team head coach. Park said, "The past five months of working as a Strengthening Committee member feel futile," adding, "Hong’s appointment was not made through the proper procedures. Even as an insider, I was unaware."

Park said, "I really didn’t know," and added, "Since Hong kept saying he wouldn’t take the position, I thought it wasn’t him." He went on to say, "The Strengthening Committee is no longer necessary," and lamented, "I wonder what we’ve been doing for five months. It’s frustrating. I think I should step down."

He also claimed that there was an internal movement within the Football Association that had effectively pre-selected a domestic coach. Park stated, "Even before the meeting started, the atmosphere was already set with conversations like 'Wouldn’t a domestic coach be better?'" He added, "When discussing foreign coaches, various objections were raised, but when it came to domestic coaches, they were blindly favored." He also mentioned, "Among them, there was someone who wanted to serve as an interim coach," and said, "The overall flow was to appoint Coach Hong." He further noted, "Externally, it seemed like they wanted a foreign coach, but in reality, that wasn’t the case."

To make matters worse, Park said there was a committee member who dismissed his opinions by saying, "You haven’t been a coach, have you?" Park emphasized, "I’m not necessarily against a domestic coach, but there needs to be a clear direction and reasons, which were completely absent."

"We should record why we recommend a coach, but there was just blind voting?lack of communication is regrettable"

Coach Hong Myung-bo (right) is seated alongside Chairman Chung Mong-gyu at a press conference held in July 2018 at the Football Hall in Jongno-gu, Seoul, while serving as the Executive Director of the Korea Football Association. [Image source=Korea Football Association]

Park expressed regret over the lack of communication and dialogue within the committee. He said, "When selecting the interim coach, they just wanted to vote blindly," and added, "I even said the committee was practically unnecessary, but this is how it turned out." At the time of selecting the interim head coach, Park did not understand the voting process but expressed regret that "at least reasons for choosing a coach were written down."

He criticized the Strengthening Committee’s approach, saying, "Even after narrowing down to 12 new candidates, they wanted to vote randomly," and added, "I said we should have a discussion. We need to keep a record of why someone thinks a particular coach is good, but they just wanted to vote."

Meanwhile, the Football Association officially announced on the 7th that Coach Hong had been appointed as the new head coach to lead Korean football. Hong’s contract runs until 2027, during which he will lead the team through the 2026 FIFA North and Central American World Cup and the 2027 Asian Cup held in Saudi Arabia.