Football Association Refutes Ministry of Culture Audit Results: "Misunderstanding of President's Duties and Disciplinary Committee's Role"

The Korea Football Association (KFA) on the 2nd refuted the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism's audit findings that the appointment process of Hong Myung-bo as the national football team coach was opaque and unfair.

On the same day, shortly after the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (MCST) released an interim report on the audit of Hong Myung-bo's appointment process, the KFA quickly issued a statement saying, "The articles of association and the national team operation regulations do not have established rules or detailed provisions regarding various situations related to the coach appointment," and added, "It is unreasonable to uniformly consider the appointment process and outcome as violating procedures simply because matters that were not explicitly codified were carried out."

This was a rebuttal to the MCST's interim audit report released that morning, which claimed procedural flaws were found in the KFA's appointment process of Hong Myung-bo, citing that Lee Im-saeng, the KFA's Technical Director, recommended Hong Myung-bo despite lacking the authority to recommend the national team coach. The MCST also pointed out that the interview process for Hong Myung-bo was opaque and unfair.

The association argued that most of the Ministry's audit content was logically inappropriate and stemmed from a lack of understanding of practical administration.

The KFA stated, "The MCST's announcement can be summarized as 'the president intervened improperly' and 'the association neutralized the National Team Strengthening Committee.' However, we believe this stems from a serious misunderstanding of the president's scope of duties and the role of the Strengthening Committee," and countered the claims.

Regarding the incident where Technical Director Lee Im-saeng waited 4 to 5 hours near Hong Myung-bo's residence to meet him, the association emphasized that, compared to the considerable travel expenses and time spent interviewing foreign coaches, "the manner of meeting can differ and cannot be considered preferential treatment."

However, the association expressed willingness to improve certain criticized matters such as the practice of board approval.

The KFA stated, "We will supplement the shortcomings, such as the regulations related to coach appointments not sufficiently reflecting reality and the insufficient implementation of board approvals, and reflect these in practical operations." It added, "We will actively consider and incorporate the concerns expressed by the MCST and create or revise detailed provisions of related regulations in the future."

The MCST formed an audit team of about ten members starting July 29 to conduct an audit of the KFA and disclosed the interim audit results on this highly publicized matter. The MCST plans to release the final audit results by the end of this month and, based on the final results, will comprehensively determine the level of disciplinary action and request the KFA to comply with the audit outcome.