Hong Gyeong-ho, the head of K League 2 club Gimpo FC, has issued a public apology and announced his resignation over an embezzlement scandal involving 8 billion won ($5.59 million) in club funds.
Hong posted an apology on the club's official social media accounts Monday, saying he "sincerely and humbly apologizes for the great shock and disappointment caused to citizens and fans by the embezzlement of public funds."
"I submitted my resignation on July 18, taking moral responsibility for the failure of oversight and supervision," he said. "My resignation has not yet been accepted, but in my heart I have already chosen the path of accountability."
Gimpo FC is under police investigation after a club employee in his 30s, identified only as A, was found to have allegedly embezzled a large sum of club funds. According to Gimpo city officials, A deceived superiors from 2023 onward by falsely reporting that club money had been deposited into short-term financial accounts, while diverting the funds for personal use.
The embezzlement was initially estimated at 5.8 billion won, but a special audit by the city's inspector general's office uncovered an additional 2.5 billion won in suspected misappropriation, bringing the total estimated damage to approximately 8.3 billion won.
Gimpo FC appointed Hong, who chairs GN Group, as its second club representative in May 2023.
"Wrongdoing must be corrected, but Gimpo FC's future must not be halted," Hong said, adding that he would "continue to cooperate fully with all relevant investigations."
The case drew sharp public criticism after it was cited as an example of cartel-like corruption in Korean football at a National Assembly Culture and Sports Committee hearing on the Korea Football Association on Thursday.
Rep. Kim Jae-won of the Rebuilding Korea Party said at the hearing that political cartels had become a breeding ground for misconduct. Park Dong-hee, a journalist who appeared as a reference witness, described Gimpo FC as "an unlicensed baeksuk restaurant that cost 210 billion won," and said that "while 8 billion won was being embezzled, no one — not the mayor who owns the club, not the chief executive, not the general manager — knew anything."
yjc@heraldcorp.com
