Former South Korean soccer player Lee Dong-gook. [Yonhap]
Former South Korean soccer player Lee Dong-gook. [Yonhap]

Lee Dong-gook, a former South Korean national team player serving as technical director of Yongin FC, attended the office just 26 days over roughly 10 months, raising allegations of neglect of duty.

According to documents obtained from Yongin FC by the office of Rebuilding Korea Party lawmaker Kim Jae-won, a member of the National Assembly's Culture, Sports and Tourism Committee, Lee showed up to the office on only 26 days during the 308-day period from Dec. 14 last year to Oct. 17 this year.

That works out to roughly once every 12 days. Access records from the first six months of his tenure, before that period, were not available.

Lee signed a two-year contract with Yongin FC as technical director in June last year. His annual salary is 144 million won ($108,000), bringing his total compensation over the contract period to 288 million won.

A technical director is responsible for overseeing a club's long-term strategy, player development and technical advancement. Yongin FC's job description for the role states that Lee is to oversee and manage everything from the club's footballing philosophy to its technical development and player development systems.

More specifically, the role involves supervising the first team, youth squads and coaching staff, monitoring player development, and personally drafting technical reports, assessments and development plans.

How often Lee attended team-building meetings — where player evaluations and squad planning are discussed — is also unclear. Of 14 such meetings scheduled between March and October this year, his access records confirmed his presence on only one day: March 6. He was listed as a participant in the May 23 meeting, for which official minutes exist, but no access record for that day could be confirmed.

Some have claimed that Lee, while continuing outside activities such as YouTube lectures and commercial shoots, would come into the office about once a week, hold meetings for roughly four hours and then leave. Key duties such as player recruitment, the claims allege, were left entirely to a scout he had personally brought in.

In response, Yongin FC said Lee is a non-resident contractor and therefore not subject to the same attendance standards as regular employees.

Lee's side said he was "sorry to have appeared lacking in the eyes of the public by working on a non-resident basis while receiving a salary in the hundreds of millions of won," but added that "over the past year, he came in as many as three times a week at times and conducted work consultations outside the office through messaging apps and other means."

Lawmaker Kim said that because Yongin FC is a civic club funded by taxpayer money, it is essential to verify whether the technical director's actual job performance — and the club's oversight of it — were appropriate given the high level of compensation involved.


bbo@heraldcorp.com