00:00 Intro
00:58 The Energy of Anger... Korean Football in the Eye of the Storm
02:58 Cautious, Calm, but Clear!

With the North and Central American World Cup now narrowed down to the final four, a powerful aftershock is rocking Korean football. Let’s briefly rewind the clock on the fast-paced events in Korean football over the past week. On July 6, Chung Mong-gyu, who had led the Korea Football Association (KFA) for 13 years, stepped down. On the afternoon of the same day, the K-Football Innovation Committee was launched. The initiative, led by the government, aims to bring together experts from the football community and the broader sports sector to drive innovation within the KFA. The KFA has automatically entered a transition period for the next presidential election, while its supervisory body, the Korean Sport & Olympic Committee (KSOC), is pushing for amendments to election laws.

[Cho Gye-won / Democratic Party Representative: Key figures involved in the incident, such as former President Chung Mong-gyu, former head coach Hong Myung-bo, and former technical director Lee Im-saeng, are resigning one after another and fleeing abroad...]

[Lee Jae-jung / Chair of the National Assembly Culture, Sports and Tourism Committee: We intend to hold a hearing on Wednesday, July 22, at 10:00 AM. Are there any objections? I declare it passed.]

1. The Energy of Anger... Korean Football in the Eye of the Storm
The demand for reform in Korean football is louder and more powerful than ever. The shocking failure to advance past the round of 32 in the World Cup is being pointed to not just as a defeat in a sports match, but as a result stemming from structural flaws in Korean football. Fans are understandably furious, as these fatal flaws have been consistently highlighted for the past three years, yet the sport ultimately faced this outcome. Korean football is truly standing on the edge of a cliff, and one wrong step could lead to a fall. Currently, concerns outweigh hopes. A recent attempt to summon players to a National Assembly hearing, which was later withdrawn, is a prime example. Members of the National Assembly, as representatives of the people and a constitutional institution, have a responsibility to oversee the KFA. However, looking at past precedents, the reality has often been a so-called political show filled with high-pitched shouting and humiliation rather than uncovering and correcting structural problems. Questions that lack professionalism and an understanding of the field only undermine trust in the National Assembly. Italy in 1966 and France in 2010 are cases where parliaments tried to investigate the causes of World Cup failures, but ultimately only worsened the wounds of their national football programs. I hope we can take these past cases as a lesson and ensure that this process proceeds in a constructive direction. The steps taken by the Innovation Committee are also precarious. Before the first meeting, Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Choi Hwi-young began by announcing that he would hand over his position as co-chair to KSOC President Yoo Seung-min.

[Choi Hwi-young / Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism: Will you accept? (Yes.) Then I will step down from the chairmanship.]

This decision appears to be made with the FIFA statutes, which strictly prohibit government interference, in mind. However, the structure makes it easy for the government's intentions to be reflected in the process of reforming the KFA's decision-making system and governance. The immediate push for election law reform is a case in point. The Innovation Committee holds the position that the upcoming election cannot be held under the existing indirect voting system involving 100 to 300 electors. They intend to significantly expand the electorate, but for that to happen, the election regulations of the superior body, the KSOC, must be amended first. Furthermore, the resulting KFA amendment must be approached cautiously and precisely to ensure it does not conflict with FIFA statutes or regulations. With the President effectively ordering a direct election system, the key is how the Innovation Committee will solve this puzzle. The number of registered individuals in the KFA far exceeds 100,000. A direct election would be similar in scale to a district mayor election, costing billions of won.

[KSOC Official: If we were to set up around 100 voting stations, it could cost billions of won, so the concern would be how to cover these costs.]

Given the already chaotic reality and capacity of the association, it is possible that they may be unable to handle any tasks other than the election. Moreover, since most of the registered members are involved in grassroots sports, while the system we are trying to change mainly concerns elite sports, deciding how many and how to increase the number of electors will be a far from easy process. With the superior body, the KSOC, having already concluded that a transition to a direct election system is practically impossible, the Innovation Committee faces the difficult challenge of finding a plan that satisfies both the public and the government while remaining realistic. The process of selecting the next head coach is also an uphill battle. Although the Innovation Committee has drawn a line, stating that coach selection is the responsibility of the National Team Committee, the extent of the committee's authority and responsibility is tied to the governance structure, making it difficult to separate the two completely. There is an A-match period spanning three weeks starting from the end of September. The committee is already burdened with questions: should this unusually long period be spent under an interim coach? If a permanent coach is appointed, can the next administration maintain continuity with decisions made under the current acting president system? More specifically, what should be the scale and duration of the contract? And is it realistic to use the Asian Cup in January next year as an interim evaluation stage? These are just some of the issues the committee is pondering before even beginning the candidate selection process. It is not easy to pick up the pace, but if they just play it safe and wait, it is clear that the chaos of the past four years will only repeat itself.

2. Cautious, Calm, but Clear!
We can learn from the cases of other countries. To improve performance, even if it takes time, we must conduct a thorough analysis of the grassroots youth scene and then overhaul our development methods, systems, and policies based on those findings. Belgium, which became the first host nation to be eliminated in the group stage of the 2000 European Championship, spent the following two years solely focused on analyzing youth football. They established policies to solve the problems they discovered, and the result was the emergence of a "Golden Generation" led by players like Kevin De Bruyne. To select a good coach, the association's decision-making structure must be clearly defined. Standards must be set regarding the extent of the National Team Committee's authority: is it merely an advisory body, or if it is entrusted with finalizing negotiations, to what extent are conditions permitted? To elect a good president, changing the election system alone is not enough. There is something else that is important. No matter how democratically the election system is changed, it is useless if the right person does not step forward. This is a time that requires a sense of responsibility and courage for Korean football, rather than stepping back because it is a position where anyone will face criticism. In 2014, Brazil suffered a shocking 7-1 defeat to Germany in the semifinals of the World Cup held on home soil. This is the so-called "Tragedy of Mineirão." Immediately after the match, Juninho Paulista, a former Brazilian national team player, was interviewed by the British public broadcaster BBC. When the reporter tried to console him over the devastating defeat, he replied: "No. No. I love football. This is the result football wants. From now on, we must calmly and coolly look into what is wrong with Brazilian football. Not because we lost today, but because there is clearly something wrong with our youth education and the way our current players play." It is heartbreaking, but we, too, have received the result that football wants. It is time for us to calmly and coolly, even if it takes time, clearly solve our problems.

Reported by Lee Jeong-Chan | Produced by Shin Hee-sook | Video by Hwang Se-hoe and Park Woo-jin | Video Editing by Hong Jin-young | Graphics by Lee Soo-min | Produced by SBS Digital News