Former South Korea national team footballer Lee Chun-soo [Newsis]
Former South Korea national team footballer Lee Chun-soo [Newsis]

Former South Korea national team footballer Lee Chun-soo has criticized ex-national team head coach Hong Myung-bo, saying it "frankly doesn't add up" for Hong to tell others to step inside the football association and fix what he helped ruin.

Lee made the remarks Thursday on his YouTube channel "Richunsu," pushing back against comments Hong made at a recent National Assembly hearing. At the hearing, Hong had suggested that football figures such as Lee and Kim Young-gwang — who have been publicly critical of the Korea Football Association from the outside — should instead join the organization directly and contribute to change from within.

Hong had said that changing the KFA's organizational culture requires more than the efforts of a few individuals, stressing that the entire football community must take responsibility and participate in reform.

In essence, Hong argued that critics should not stop at voicing complaints from the outside but should engage directly with the realities inside the association and work toward solving its problems.

Hong Myung-bo returns home amid criticism from football fans [Yonhap]
Hong Myung-bo returns home amid criticism from football fans [Yonhap]

Lee rebuffed that position directly. "Frankly, I don't think it adds up to wreck everything and then tell us to go in and fix it," he said.

Lee also said he had wanted to work inside the KFA himself, adding that he had always been shut out despite his willingness to give everything to the job. Because he was never given the opportunity to work within the association, he said, speaking out from the outside was the only option left to him.

"Because I couldn't get in, I do it from the outside — on YouTube and elsewhere," he said.


yeonjoo7@heraldcorp.com