The fallout from South Korea's shocking loss to South Africa at the 2026 FIFA World Cup has reached the National Assembly, with politicians calling for sweeping reform of the Korea Football Association and its insular structure built on school ties and regional connections.
The national team's poor performance and questions over how the KFA is run dominated discussion at a confirmation hearing for prime minister nominee Han Sung-sook on Friday.
Independent lawmaker Choi Hyeok-jin opened with a quip — "Not watching the football because we were busy with the confirmation hearing may have added a few years to our lives" — before launching a sharp critique of what he called deep-rooted structural problems in Korean football.
"A cartel built around certain universities and certain regions within the Korea Football Association is ruining Korean football," Choi said. "For decades, young players who dream of representing their country have found that no matter how talented they are, if they didn't attend the right university they can barely make the national team — and even if they do, they end up warming the bench."
He added that such a cartel operating in an area funded by taxpayers' money was "breaking the hearts of the public" and that "the time has clearly come for structural reform." He urged the nominee to "shake the football association to its core."
Han said the KFA's problems were "a matter that the entire nation is furious about — I don't need to explain it to you," and said she believed the situation "will be resolved well."
The hearing also drew lighter remarks about the team's struggles. Baek Hye-ryeon, a Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker chairing the special confirmation hearing committee, said she had heard people suggest "that today's hearing should be for coach Hong Myung-bo, not for nominee Han."
Fellow Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker Park Seon-won used a football analogy to press the case for organizational reform, suggesting Han had been chosen precisely because the president wanted someone who could shake things up the way Guus Hiddink did. "A coach who came up through coaching, like Hiddink, would be better than a former player like Hong," Park said. "Wasn't the president's intention in picking nominee Han to have someone play the Hiddink role, rather than a career bureaucrat or academic?"
He went on to urge Han to follow through on directives to the end, noting that "bureaucratic culture is tight-knit and hard to change," and to manage the entire organization with the same precision Hiddink used in deploying every player in the right position.
The defeat has shifted public sentiment beyond calls for a coaching change, toward demands for a comprehensive overhaul of the KFA's governance structure, personnel system and national team selection process.
South Korea, coached by Hong Myung-bo, now face a serious threat to their hopes of advancing to the round of 32 at the 2026 FIFA World Cup. The team lost 1-0 to South Africa in their Group A finale on Thursday (local time), finishing third in the group with one win, two losses and three points, and losing the chance to advance automatically. Their situation worsened the following day when results elsewhere played out in the worst possible scenario for South Korea, sending their chances of surviving as one of the best third-place teams plummeting within a single day.
South Korea currently sit sixth among all third-place teams competing for wild-card berths, with the group stage at its halfway point. Hong's side now depends on the results of the remaining six groups' final matches, spread across Saturday (Groups G, H and I) and Sunday (Groups J, K and L). South Korea's survival requires either Senegal and Iraq to draw, or — if Senegal wins — for the margin to be no more than one goal. If Iraq wins, South Korea are expected to hold a slim edge as long as the margin does not reach five goals or more.
shee@heraldcorp.com
