Park Hang-seo: 'I read the apology alone — everyone else was dodging'

Park Hang-seo, former head of the Korea Football Association's support delegation for the 2026 North and Central America World Cup, has leveled sharp criticism at the KFA over the administrative chaos that followed South Korea's group-stage elimination.

Park made the remarks in an appearance on the YouTube channel "Seo Hyung-wook's Ppol-li TV," recounting a series of incidents from the World Cup campaign. The video, released Wednesday, has surpassed 1 million views.

Park exposed what he described as the KFA's baffling administrative failures. The most glaring was his reading the apology statement alone at the press conference marking Hong Myung-bo's resignation as head coach.

"Everyone was there when the apology statement came out — the chairman, everyone," Park said. "They said it would be good if the delegation head was there too. But when I looked around, it seemed like the secretary general and the performance enhancement committee chair didn't want to stand up there. So I told those two to step back — I'd handle it alone."

Park also took aim at Hong, who read a prepared statement at the press conference without taking questions and left with his hands in his pockets, as well as at KFA leadership who were present but did not step forward.

"I couldn't understand ending it without taking reporters' questions," Park said. "When you need to face things head-on, you have to do it. You have to cleanly admit your mistakes and take the hits if they're coming. Avoiding it doesn't make it go away. At the airport when we returned home, everyone was looking around waiting for someone else to act, so I thought it was my duty and stepped forward."

Park said "an invisible KFA cartel runs deeper than school ties" and called for "young football people with no personal agenda to come to the fore." He urged the association to undertake "bone-deep self-reflection" and fundamentally overhaul its culture.