Ruling and opposition parties vow sweeping reform of Korean football federation

South Korea's political establishment is calling for sweeping reform of the Korea Football Association following the national team's failure to advance past the round of 32 at the 2026 North America World Cup and the subsequent resignation of head coach Hong Myung-bo.

Han Byung-do, acting leader and floor leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, said at a Supreme Council meeting at the National Assembly on Monday that many football experts had predicted the team's poor showing at the tournament. "The football world's cartel — marked by the KFA's self-serving, backroom administration and a culture of promoting insiders — is being cited as a core problem," Han said.

He added that the Assembly would discuss measures to prevent the KFA's "arrogance and incompetence" from disappointing the public again.

Democratic Party lawmaker Park Beom-gye wrote on Facebook that South Korean football had shown it needed not a renovation but a full reconstruction. Fellow party lawmaker Jo Gye-won, a former member of the Culture, Sports and Tourism Committee, said the team's failure to reach the round of 32 was deeply disappointing and called for "major surgery" on Korean football.

Song Young-gil, a Democratic Party lawmaker seen as a contender for the party's next leadership, said the World Cup result was a disaster foreseeable since the 2014 Brazil World Cup and that the process had been unfair from the start. "A sweeping transformation is needed to return Korean football to the people," he said.

Lawmakers from the People Power Party were equally forceful. Kim Seung-su, the PPP's chief floor whip, said his party had repeatedly urged the KFA to take responsibility and reform itself — at press conferences, full committee sessions, national audits and budget deliberations — but the association had ignored public concern and brought condemnation upon itself. He said that if he serves on the Culture, Sports and Tourism Committee in the second half of the Assembly term, he would thoroughly examine the KFA's overall operations and press for accountable sports administration and a revival of Korean football.

PPP lawmaker Yoon Sang-hyun said that without a complete overhaul of the KFA, "dreams will not come true." He called on the government to immediately launch an audit of the association and publicly disclose how public funds have been spent.

Reform Party floor leader Cheon Ha-ram said at his party's supreme council meeting Monday that the political world must now address the long-untouched question of public budget support for civic football clubs. "Beyond whether tax support is appropriate in the first place, we need to carefully examine whether positions such as head coach and technical adviser at tax-funded civic clubs are a source of the football cartel," he said.