Lawmakers blast Korea Football Association over 'worst-ever' World Cup performance

Football controversy spills into National Assembly confirmation hearing

Choi Hyeok-jin: 'KFA cartel is bruising the hearts of the people'

Moon Geum-ju: 'Resigning is not enough for Hong Myung-bo'

South Korea national team head coach Hong Myung-bo listens to a reporter's question at a press conference before a recovery training session at Chivas Valle Verde in Guadalajara, Mexico, on Thursday (local time), the team's base camp for the 2026 World Cup. [Yonhap]

Anger over South Korea's national football team is spilling into the National Assembly, with lawmakers turning their fire on head coach Hong Myung-bo and the Korea Football Association after the team's dismal loss to South Africa in its third Group A match at the 2026 North America World Cup.

At a confirmation hearing for prime minister nominee Han Sung-sook held Friday, the World Cup and the national team became an unexpected topic of discussion among lawmakers.

Independent lawmaker Choi Hyeok-jin opened his questioning with a wry remark, saying, "I wonder how many years our lives were extended by not watching the football match because we were busy with this confirmation hearing." He then turned serious, saying, "A cartel of certain universities and certain regions within the Korea Football Association is ruining South Korean football."

Choi said it had been decades since people began pointing out that young players who aspire to become footballers cannot make the national team no matter how hard they work unless they attend certain universities — and that even those who do make it are often left on the bench. "Why does such a cartel exist in a place funded by taxpayers' money, bruising the hearts of the people?" he said. "This is clearly the moment for structural reform." He then urged the nominee to "shake the football association to its core."

Han said in response that the football association issue would "resolve itself well," adding that "all citizens are already expressing their fury about it, so I don't need to say anything more."

Baek Hye-ryeon, a Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker chairing the special confirmation hearing committee, said she had jokingly heard on Friday that "maybe we should be holding a confirmation hearing for Coach Hong, not for nominee Han."

Fellow Democratic Party lawmaker Park Seon-won also weighed in on the football theme, saying coach Guus Hiddink — a manager by trade — would be better than Hong, who came up as a player. Park drew a parallel to the nominee, saying Han was "not an ordinary bureaucrat or the typical professor type, but a Hiddink," and that was why the president had chosen her. "Please become like Hiddink," he said.

Park added that the bureaucratic world is "deeply entrenched and not easy to break through," warning that officials tend to "answer only what they know and carry out only 30 percent of what they are told." He urged Han to "look carefully at that, and become a Hiddink who made full use of every player in every corner of the pitch."

Prime minister nominee Han Sung-sook reviews documents during her confirmation hearing at the National Assembly on Friday. [Yonhap]

Meanwhile, Moon Geum-ju, a Democratic Party lawmaker and member of the Assembly Football Federation, took to Facebook to deliver a blunt message to Hong: "Never show your face as a coach again."

"How can you produce this with such talented players?" Moon said. "Resigning is not enough. Everyone already saw Hong's true colors when the team was eliminated at the Brazil World Cup. The entire football world must be held accountable."

bigroot@heraldcorp.com