Former national football team head coach Hong Myung-bo listens to lawmakers' questions at a National Assembly Culture, Sports and Tourism Committee hearing on Korea Football Association issues, held Thursday. [National Assembly Press Photographers' Pool]
Former national football team head coach Hong Myung-bo listens to lawmakers' questions at a National Assembly Culture, Sports and Tourism Committee hearing on Korea Football Association issues, held Thursday. [National Assembly Press Photographers' Pool]

Police investigating alleged improper interference in the selection of the national football team head coach have summoned former coach Hong Myung-bo for questioning for the first time in a closed-door session.

The financial crimes unit of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency Metropolitan Investigation Unit said Wednesday that it had called in Hong as a suspect on Tuesday and questioned him on the overall process by which he was appointed head coach.

A civic group, the Citizens' Livelihood Countermeasures Committee, filed a complaint with police on July 2 against Hong and former Korea Football Association President Chung Mong-gyu on charges including coercion, intimidation, obstruction of business and breach of fiduciary duty in connection with the coaching appointment.

The group alleged that Chung and other senior KFA officials had improperly interfered in the selection process, and that Hong's contract and payment arrangements also raised grounds for breach of fiduciary duty.

The Jongno Police Station in Seoul had been receiving related complaints and conducting an investigation since July 2024, when Hong was appointed head coach, but failed to reach a conclusion over roughly two years. After public attention to the case intensified following South Korea's World Cup elimination last month, the case was transferred on July 1 to the Metropolitan Investigation Unit's financial crimes unit.

Police had also summoned two witnesses for questioning on July 14 — a person identified only as "A," who served on the KFA's national team enhancement committee at the time of Hong's appointment, and another identified as "B," a former KFA vice president.


betterj@heraldcorp.com