South Korea's World Cup failure puts football federation under fire

South Korea's national football team turned in its worst-ever World Cup performance at the 2026 FIFA World Cup in North America, prompting head coach Hong Myung-bo to resign and fueling growing calls for a sweeping overhaul of the Korea Football Association.

Hong resigned Sunday (Korean Standard Time) at the team's base camp in Zapopan, Mexico, after the group stage concluded. Despite surviving controversy over the fairness of his appointment two years ago, Hong departed in disgrace after the team was eliminated in the group stage and finished 34th overall.

In an official statement, Hong took full responsibility for the result. "I was unable to show the people of Korea the outcome they had hoped for at this World Cup. That responsibility rests entirely with me as the head coach," he said. He added that while he was stepping down from the role, he had not given up on Korean football. "I sincerely hope our national team will grow into a side that once again earns the trust and love of the Korean people," he said.

Many observers say the deep disappointment and sense of betrayal felt by Korean fans stems from the flawed administrative practices of the Korea Football Association, the governing body overseeing the team. The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism announced Saturday — the day before Hong's resignation — that it would form a committee to conduct a thorough investigation into the team's group-stage elimination.

Culture Minister Choi Hwi-young said the ministry would pursue a sweeping reform of football administration with urgency, vowing to restore national pride. "We will form a committee of experts to thoroughly investigate the causes behind this devastating result, and will hold those responsible for any incompetence or negligence strictly accountable," he said.

President Lee Jae Myung also weighed in Sunday via social media, indirectly criticizing the controversy surrounding Hong's appointment. "It has been proven again that personnel decisions are everything," he wrote. He pledged to swiftly push ahead with reforms to sports administration to prevent a recurrence.

Under Hong, South Korea finished third in Group A with one win and two losses, earning three points — not enough to claim one of the eight spots reserved for the best third-place finishers that advance to the round of 32. Hong and the players returned home Sunday without any official homecoming ceremony. Players based abroad departed according to their individual schedules.

South Korea's World Cup campaign is over and Hong has resigned, but the push to reform Korean football is only beginning. The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, which has been monitoring problems within the Korea Football Association since 2024, is now launching a full-scale investigation — and there is widespread hope it will finally dismantle the entrenched practices and cartel-like networks within the federation.

The most pressing question is how Hong was appointed in the first place. Hong resigned in disgrace after the 2014 Brazil World Cup, where South Korea managed just one draw and two losses, yet was somehow handed a second stint as national team head coach — an opportunity never given even to Guus Hiddink, who led South Korea to the World Cup semifinals, or Paulo Bento, who guided the team to its first-ever round of 16 victory on foreign soil at the 2022 Qatar World Cup.

While other foreign coaching candidates went through formal interviews and presentations, Hong's appointment followed a starkly different path. Lee Im-saeng, the KFA's technical director, reportedly approached Hong directly and asked him to take the job, and Hong accepted after a single day of deliberation. The lack of any proper interview process only deepened the controversy.

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism conducted a special audit of the KFA and identified procedural irregularities in the coaching appointment process. It also found that KFA President Chung Mong-gyu had personally intervened in the final candidate interviews for Hong's predecessor, Jurgen Klinsmann, and that the required board approval process had been bypassed.

KFA President Chung has agreed to step down after the North American World Cup, and Hong has now left in disgrace — but the prevailing view is that replacing one or two individuals will not be enough to pull Korean football out of its current crisis. Calls are growing for a systemic overhaul of the entire federation. Critics say there is no future for Korean football without addressing its chronic internal problems: a neutered coaching appointment process, a board of directors that acts as a rubber stamp, and a cartel in which graduates of certain universities monopolize key positions.

Football commentator Park Ji-sung said the tournament was a repeat of 2014. "Those leading Korean football are doing things wrong," he said. "It will take at least 10 years for Korea to build a proper system." A football industry insider was equally blunt. "This time, it can't end with just changing the coach — the KFA, the K League, referees, youth development, all of Korean football needs to be torn apart and rebuilt from scratch if there is to be any future," the person said.