Lawmaker Jin Jong-oh launches KFA whistleblower center, demands leadership resign over World Cup

By Jung Seok-jun, The Herald Business

People Power Party lawmaker Jin Jong-oh announced Monday that he would launch a whistleblower center to receive reports of corruption at the Korea Football Association. He said he would "wait for the courageous tips from the public and football fans to root out the KFA's backroom administration and corruption and transparently rebuild Korean football."

Jin, a member of the National Assembly's Culture, Sports and Tourism Committee, held a press conference at the National Assembly that day. He called on "the entire leadership of the corrupt cartel KFA under Chung Mong-gyu, the chief culprits behind the World Cup disaster, to take full responsibility for the current catastrophe and the concealment of the truth and resign immediately." He also demanded they "fully confess to the ugly backroom collusion and illegality in the appointment process of head coach Hong Myung-bo and cooperate unconditionally with a thorough, no-holds-barred investigation."

Jin also called for the government and the Korean Sport and Olympic Committee to "immediately conduct a full special audit of the corrupt football association and hold all those implicated in the entrenched KFA cartel to strict legal and administrative account."

"This humiliating disaster is not a coincidence — it was a foreseeable tragedy," he said. "In September 2024, I warned that backroom collusion and organized concealment had begun in the process of appointing head coach Hong Myung-bo, but the KFA laughed off even the national audit, refused to submit documents and deceived the National Assembly and the public with sophistry."

He went on to say that "the arrogance of cutting off the tail to cover up the situation and pocket a get-out-of-jail-free card two years ago ultimately left a broken system to fester, reducing South Korea to a laughingstock on the world stage at this World Cup."