The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism's audit revealed that the Korea Football Association did not follow internal regulations on several occasions during the process of appointing Hong Myung-bo and Jurgen Klinsmann as national soccer team coaches.
On the morning of the 2nd, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism held an interim announcement regarding the audit of the Football Association's national team coach selection at the annex of the Seoul Government Complex in Jongno-gu, Seoul.
According to the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the Korea Football Association did not properly follow procedures when appointing Coach Hong, as Director of Technology Lee Im-saeng, who has no authority, made the final recommendation of the coach candidate and the interview process was opaque and unfair.
When the chairman of the National Team Strengthening Committee, Jeong Hae-seong, who was leading the process of selecting the national team coach, suddenly stepped down from his position after selecting the final coach candidates with Hong Myung-bo as the first choice, Technical Director Lee took the lead in the selection process thereafter.
The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism stated, “The Korea Football Association claims that it assigned this role to the technical director at the request of Chairman Chung, but during the audit process, it was confirmed that Chairman Chung had never made such a request to the Korea Football Association.” It added, “It is difficult to accept the Korea Football Association’s claim that the technical director had the authority to recommend the coach.”
The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism also determined that there were problems with the director's interview process, which did not follow the rules.
After interviewing two foreign coach candidates, Gus Poyet and David Wagner, overseas, the technical director returned to Korea and met with Coach Hong, reporting him as the number one candidate.
However, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism cited 'Chairman Chung Mong-gyu's order to Chairman Chung to meet with foreign candidates' as the first cause of the controversy that has shaken the soccer world for nearly three months.
When Chairman Chung asked Chairman Chung to appoint Coach Hong, the top candidate, as the national team coach, Chairman Chung instructed him to personally interview the other two foreign coaches who were ranked lower.
Then, Chairman Jeong tendered his resignation due to personal reasons including deteriorating health, and the technical director who took over after him began interviewing foreign candidates.
Choi Hyun-joon, the Auditor General of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism who conducted the briefing, said, "If we had accepted (Chairman Chung's opinion) and pushed forward with the negotiations (with Coach Hong), I don't think this problem would have occurred," adding, "If we had started negotiations with the top candidate for Coach Hong Myung-bo, there wouldn't have been a big problem."
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