8 in 10 South Koreans blame Hong Myung-bo for World Cup exit, survey finds

Eight in 10 South Koreans believe the national football team's group-stage exit at the 2026 FIFA World Cup in North and Central America was due to a lack of capability on the part of former head coach Hong Myung-bo and his coaching staff, a new survey shows.

Korea Research released results of its poll on "Evaluations of the 2026 North and Central America World Cup and public opinion on selecting the next national team head coach" on Wednesday. The survey found that 81 percent of respondents rated the team's World Cup performance as "a disappointing result that fell short of expectations."

When asked to identify the reasons for the group-stage failure — with multiple answers allowed — 80 percent cited "lack of capability of the head coach and coaching staff," making it the top response by far. That was followed by "lack of teamwork and organizational cohesion" at 40 percent, "insufficient support from the football association" at 19 percent, and "the overall improvement of global football" at 11 percent. "Lack of individual players' skill" was cited by only 8 percent, while "a difficult group draw" was named by just 3 percent.

On Hong's decision to resign, 78 percent said it was "the right call."

Regarding the nationality of the next head coach, 57 percent said "nationality does not matter." "A foreign coach should be appointed" was the preference of 23 percent, while 8 percent said a Korean coach should be chosen and 12 percent were unsure.

Compared with a survey conducted just after the 2023 Asian Cup in Qatar, the share favoring "nationality irrelevant" was nearly unchanged, up just 1 percentage point from 56 percent. However, preference for a foreign coach surged 17 percentage points over three years, from 6 percent to 23 percent, while preference for a Korean coach fell 19 percentage points, from 27 percent to 8 percent.

On the length of the next coach's contract, 38 percent said the appointment should be "reassessed based on results at the 2027 Asian Cup," outpacing the 31 percent who said the contract should be guaranteed through the next World Cup.

The tournament appeared to have little impact on national pride. Only 20 percent said the World Cup made them feel proud to be South Korean — a drop of 53 percentage points from 73 percent recorded after the 2022 Qatar World Cup. The share saying the tournament deepened their affection for the country also fell steeply, from 67 percent to 26 percent.

The survey was conducted online from July 10 to July 13 among 1,000 adults aged 18 and older nationwide. The margin of error is plus or minus 3.1 percentage points at a 95 percent confidence level.