Hong Kyeong-ho, CEO of professional football club Gimpo FC in K League 2, has bowed his head in apology and expressed his intention to resign over an embezzlement scandal involving public funds amounting to around 8 billion won.

Posting an apology statement on the club's official social media accounts on August 3, CEO Hong stated, "I sincerely bow my head and apologize for causing great shock and disappointment to citizens and fans due to the public funds embezzlement case."

He stated, "Taking moral responsibility for failing in management and oversight, I submitted my resignation on July 18. Although my resignation has not yet been accepted, my heart has already chosen the path of taking responsibility."

Recently, Gimpo FC has been under police investigation as circumstances emerged that an employee in their 30s in charge of accounting, surnamed A, had embezzled a massive amount of public funds.

According to Gimpo City and other sources, employee A siphoned off club funds starting in 2023 by falsely reporting to superiors that public funds had been deposited into short-term bank deposits.

Initially, the embezzled amount was known to be around 5.8 billion won, but recent additional embezzlement circumstances amounting to about 2.5 billion won were identified during a special audit by the city's audit office, bringing the estimated total damage to around 8.3 billion won.

Hong expressed, "As CEO, I feel a deep sense of responsibility facing the fact that such an incident occurred at a club that must uphold trust. This has also become an indescribable pain for me."

Lastly, he added, "Mistakes must be corrected, but the future of Gimpo FC must not come to a halt. We will continue to faithfully cooperate with the investigations and probes by relevant authorities to the end."

(Photo: Captured from Gimpo FC's official SNS, Yonhap News)