"Repeating the Same Situation Under the Jeong Mong-gyu Regime"
"Spoke Out with the Thought of Saying What Needed to Be Said"
Park Moon-sung, a football commentator who 'deliberately targeted' Chung Mong-gyu, the chairman of the Korea Football Association (KFA), expressed his regret over the management policy of the Korean national football team. Watching the controversies surrounding the KFA, he said, "I have spent half of my life in football, and it felt like half of my life was being denied."
On the afternoon of the 25th, Park appeared on YTN NewsFM's 'Lee Ik-seon, Choi Soo-young Issue & People' and criticized, "(The KFA controversy) will inevitably continue as long as Chairman Chung Mong-gyu's regime persists."
He explained, "Watching the recent events was bitter. I have spent 25 years in the football world, but is football only this much? People criticize it like this, yet there is no ability to self-correct or face the problems." He added, "I don't have the power to change the current situation, but I thought I should say something, so I spoke like that (in the National Assembly)."
Earlier, Park appeared as a witness at the National Assembly's Culture, Sports and Tourism Committee's urgent inquiry the day before. At that time, sitting alongside Chairman Chung and others, he sharply criticized, saying, "(The KFA) does not care about public opinion," and "The Chung Mong-gyu regime should end." He pointed out the administrative and operational problems of the KFA in detail and urged, "This closed organization called the KFA must be opened."
When the radio show host asked Park, regarding his 'deliberate targeting,' "If there is anything you couldn't say, please say it all here," he emphasized, "Looking at the big picture, Korean football has the strongest members ever, yet our national team is regressing. What is the cause of this?" He continued, "All the high-quality ingredients are assembled, but the dish is terrible. Then the problem lies with the chef. I want to say that the problem is with the container holding the players, the KFA leadership."
He said, "Our people, our fans, do not only cheer for gold medals. They cheer even if we don't win medals, even for bronze, or even if we don't rank." He added, "We have matured into a society that focuses not on results but on the process, and we need to examine how transparent and fair that process is."
He further stated, "What I said at the National Assembly yesterday was why (Chairman Chung and others) do not care about public opinion, why they cannot meet people's expectations." He pointed out, "Their life trajectories are different from ours. They have never competed in society through normal procedures and gained opportunities from high positions first. Their starting lines are different."
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