South Korea national football team head coach Hong Myung-bo watches players train at Chivas Valle Verde in Zapopan, near Guadalajara, Mexico, on Saturday (local time), ahead of the team's 2026 North America World Cup campaign. [Yonhap]
South Korea national football team head coach Hong Myung-bo watches players train at Chivas Valle Verde in Zapopan, near Guadalajara, Mexico, on Saturday (local time), ahead of the team's 2026 North America World Cup campaign. [Yonhap]

Actor Han Jung-su has lashed out at the Korea Football Association and its chairman, Chung Mong-gyu, following South Korea's group-stage elimination from the 2026 North America World Cup.

On Sunday, Han posted an image on his social media that read: "The person who saw all of this coming and pulled out early — he is the real culprit."

He followed up with the caption "Who is the real culprit?" and answered his own question: "The chairman and the Korea Football Association." When a fan asked who he meant, Han repeated the answer — "The chairman and the Korea Football Association?" — making his criticism unmistakable.

Han had already taken aim at head coach Hong Myung-bo immediately after South Korea's match against South Africa on June 25.

"His salary should be confiscated," Han wrote at the time. "They assembled the best players and put on the worst performance in history." He added that he could not understand the tactics or the player selections, and that Hong appeared to have clung to his position purely for the money. "Hong Myung-bo is the definition of the worst coach. It's enough to make you hate football," he wrote.


choigo@heraldcorp.com