Soccer commentator Park Moon-sung. [Yonhap]
Soccer commentator Park Moon-sung. [Yonhap]

Soccer commentator Park Moon-sung has sharply criticized Lee Im-saeng, the former Korea Football Association director of technology, for refusing to appear before a National Assembly hearing.

Lee was selected as a witness for a National Assembly Culture, Sports and Tourism Committee hearing on the Korea Football Association scheduled for Thursday, but said he would not attend, citing a job with a Cambodian professional soccer club. He reportedly told the committee he would send a legal representative in his place, but the committee rejected the request.

Lee was at the center of a controversy over procedural legitimacy in July 2024, when he pushed through the appointment of then-manager Hong Myung-bo despite having no authority to do so.

Park said on his video channel Wednesday that even granting every possible benefit of the doubt, KFA Chairman Chung Mong-gyu, manager Hong and director Lee were among those who absolutely had to appear. "Even if others don't have to show up, those three must," he said.

"The courts have already ruled that the KFA acted in violation of its own bylaws," Park said. "The people who led those actions should come to the hearing in person, explain their positions, be called out for what went wrong, and make clear what needs to be made clear."

He went on to say that speaking up for one's actions — or apologizing if one was in the wrong — was "the bare minimum responsibility expected of an adult." "What we're seeing now is cowardly, irresponsible and not admirable in the least," he said.

On reports that Lee had sought to send a legal representative, Park said that if true, it was "completely unacceptable." "A hearing is not a venue for legal disputes — it is a venue for holding people publicly accountable," he said. "It is a place where you come in person to explain what went wrong. Talking about sending a legal representative means you are trying to evade responsibility and mount a legal defense rather than establish the facts."


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