KOR- Substituting Son Heung-min in the second half was like admitting a tactical blunder
- Internal disciplinary action over Son Heung-min and Lee Jae-sung refusing interviews? Mere rumors
- Disagreements over interviews did not affect player selection
- Disciplinary action against Jens? No plans to start him in the first place... a tactical decision
- Football Association in administrative vacuum, lacks ability to manage star players
- National team manager must be someone capable of managing big-club players
- Appointing an interim manager from the K League? A method that has already failed
- Changing KFA regulations through government intervention? Must proceed quickly
■ Broadcast: SBS Kim Tae-hyun's Political Show (FM 103.5 MHz 7:00 – 9:00)
■ Date: July 3, 2026 (Friday)
■ Host: Attorney Kim Tae-hyun
■ Guest: Seo Hyeong-uk, Football Commentator
▷ Kim Tae-hyun: Following the shocking elimination in the World Cup group stage (round of 32), chronic issues in Korean football have come to light, leading to strong calls for structural reform. Today, we speak with football commentator Seo Hyeong-uk about the most urgent problems that need to be resolved for Korean football to move forward. Hello, Mr. Seo.
▶ Seo Hyeong-uk: Hello.
▷ Kim Tae-hyun: I imagine you've lost a lot of sleep lately, watching the state of Korean football.
▶ Seo Hyeong-uk: Yes. That is true, but since the World Cup is still ongoing, I am also watching high-quality matches. Every night, I feel a contrast between those matches and the regrets I have about our own football.
▷ Kim Tae-hyun: Let's start with former manager Hong Myung-bo. Yesterday (July 2), he shared his stance through the media for the first time. To be precise, it wasn't a formal press conference, but rather a situation where he had no choice but to speak after being cornered by reporters waiting outside. Let's first listen to what former manager Hong Myung-bo said.
[Hong Myung-bo, Former Manager of the Korean National Football Team]
"From the beginning, no one is in a position to say whether it was right or wrong. For example, we didn't know things would turn out that way with Oh Hyeon-gyu. No one knew that substituting Son Heung-min for Oh Hyeon-gyu would lead to him scoring the winning goal. Later, we left Son Heung-min out again, but it didn't work that time. What makes being a manager difficult is that you have to realize everything on the pitch. If it works out, you're a good manager, but if it doesn't, you're not. That's just how results are."
▷ Kim Tae-hyun: Regarding that statement. After the match against South Africa, the biggest question we had was, "Excluding Son Heung-min? Have you ever seen Ronaldo or Messi benched?" Yet, we left Son Heung-min out of the starting lineup in our most crucial match. His response is an answer to why that decision was made. In short, Hong's answer sounds like: "Substituting Son early is a matter of hindsight. It worked in the first match, so why are you complaining about the results now?" How did you hear it, Mr. Seo?
▶ Seo Hyeong-uk: Indeed, it is in that context. In the past, we have often seen domestic managers make unusual player selections, especially when participating in major tournaments. Under immense stress and during the process of analyzing opponents, they sometimes make choices at the last minute that differ from their usual patterns. However, these choices rarely succeed. In football, it is generally standard to make high-probability choices to minimize mistakes, which is why teams undergo extensive training and tactical analysis.
▷ Kim Tae-hyun: Yes.
▶ Seo Hyeong-uk: But for this national team, many things were not finalized even right before the tournament. Their performance wasn't very good either.
▷ Kim Tae-hyun: Exactly.
▶ Seo Hyeong-uk: The starting lineup was not fixed either. Most successful teams usually keep at least their defensive line relatively stable and well-coordinated before entering a tournament. However, in this tournament, we had Kim Min-jae in the center, with Lee Han-beom and Lee Gi-hyeok on either side. This combination was practically put into action for the first time during the actual tournament.
▷ Kim Tae-hyun: That back-three combination was formed during the tournament?
▶ Seo Hyeong-uk: Yes. Lee Gi-hyeok had been playing in the K League and was suddenly included in the final roster. The depth and cohesion of the squad were quite lacking. Under those circumstances, the manager seemed to be under immense stress, especially since the team's performance in the first and second matches was subpar.
▷ Kim Tae-hyun: And the third match was even worse.
▶ Seo Hyeong-uk: Right. From our perspective, we naturally wonder, "Excluding both Son Heung-min and Lee Jae-sung at the same time?" Many rumors have emerged as people try to find answers to this question.
▷ Kim Tae-hyun: Yes.
▶ Seo Hyeong-uk: However, based on my reporting and what manager Hong Myung-bo himself admitted, there doesn't seem to be any other reason—such as Son Heung-min and Lee Jae-sung being excluded because they rebelled against Hong. If that were true, it would be a massive scandal, but there is no evidence of such circumstances. Within the national team, it seems it was already somewhat decided beforehand to start Oh Hyeon-gyu in the match against South Africa. In deciding his partner among Lee Jae-sung, Hwang Hee-chan, and Son Heung-min, looking back, Hwang Hee-chan's condition during this tournament did not seem very good.
▷ Kim Tae-hyun: Actually, Hwang Hee-chan's form was poor not just in this tournament, but throughout the entire season.
▶ Seo Hyeong-uk: But the national team has various analytical indicators and physical assessments, right? They had been using them extensively since the warm-up matches. The word from inside and outside the team is that they judged his condition to be good, which led to that selection for the South Africa match. In any case, it ended up being a massive failure, and since they eventually subbed Son Heung-min in during the second half...
▷ Kim Tae-hyun: Yes.
▶ Seo Hyeong-uk: ...it serves as proof of two things: first, it was an admission that benching Son Heung-min was a tactical blunder; and second, it refutes the idea that he was benched out of spite or due to a conflict.
▷ Kim Tae-hyun: There have been rumors since yesterday—or was it the day before yesterday?—about a joint disciplinary action against Son Heung-min and Lee Jae-sung. The story goes that after a certain media outlet broadcasted reporters' private chatter mocking Son Heung-min's military service exemption on a YouTube channel, Son and his peer Lee Jae-sung suggested to the squad that they refuse to do interviews. They didn't do interviews after the Czech Republic match, but did Hwang In-beom do an interview after the Mexico match? If I recall correctly, I think Hwang In-beom did.
▶ Seo Hyeong-uk: The interview boycott actually continued after the Mexico match.
▷ Kim Tae-hyun: Did it? So there were rumors that there was conflict because of that issue. Is that true?
▶ Seo Hyeong-uk: This was merely a rumor, but Representative Jin Jong-oh has been talking about it extensively in various places—I'm not sure why. He made it sound as if there was a massive power struggle and conflict within the national team, leading to clashes between the manager and players, and dividing the players themselves, which spread widely as a rumor of internal strife.
▷ Kim Tae-hyun: It wasn't to that extent?
▶ Seo Hyeong-uk: No, it wasn't.
▷ Kim Tae-hyun: Based on your reporting.
▶ Seo Hyeong-uk: Yes.
▷ Kim Tae-hyun: Because I also wondered why whether to do an interview or not was so important that it would cause a clash between the players who did interviews and Son Heung-min and Lee Jae-sung, who urged them not to, and how manager Hong Myung-bo handled that.
▶ Seo Hyeong-uk: To be clear, there was indeed a disagreement.
▷ Kim Tae-hyun: Over the interviews?
▶ Seo Hyeong-uk: Yes. If there was one issue that dominated the South Korean national football team's camp throughout this tournament, it was the refusal of interviews by Son Heung-min and the squad following that "backbiting" controversy.
▷ Kim Tae-hyun: Was that really such a big issue?
▶ Seo Hyeong-uk: Because the players live in isolation in a remote place for nearly six weeks.
▷ Kim Tae-hyun: They must get sensitive.
▶ Seo Hyeong-uk: In that situation, journalists also went there to do their jobs. This incident is truly unprecedented in the YouTube era. Of course, the backbiting was a major mistake, and since it was exposed, the situation had to be resolved regardless of how it happened. This led to debates over accountability—even among the press corps, over whose fault it was and whether an apology was necessary.
▷ Kim Tae-hyun: Yes.
▶ Seo Hyeong-uk: Within the squad, they were stressed by the press corps and the association, and as that stress reached the players, there were differing opinions. Some felt that since the tournament and the matches were the priority, they shouldn't waste energy on this and should just do the interviews at some point.
▷ Kim Tae-hyun: And there were others who believed they should refuse until the end.
▶ Seo Hyeong-uk: Yes. But while there was some disagreement and a lack of communication, looking at how much of a role this played in the team's performance—which ultimately resulted in a failed tournament—it is a logical leap to claim, as Representative Jin Jong-oh did, that internal strife degraded performance and even affected player selection. That is an overinterpretation of a few facts. Although some might dismiss former manager Hong Myung-bo's comments yesterday (July 2) as just a leader defending his team, no matter who I interviewed or asked among those on-site, there was absolutely no conflict of that scale. Even regarding Jens Castrop...
▷ Kim Tae-hyun: There were also rumors of disciplinary action against Jens.
▶ Seo Hyeong-uk: Yes, rumors about him being late and various other issues.
▷ Kim Tae-hyun: I've heard all sorts of things, including a rumor that he was disciplined for showing up barefoot in the dining hall.
▶ Seo Hyeong-uk: Yes. But manager Hong Myung-bo never considered Jens as a starter in the first place.
▷ Kim Tae-hyun: Really?
▶ Seo Hyeong-uk: Right, so it's not like he was a starter who was suddenly dropped. He was simply not used. Although it might be hard to understand since he is a starter in the Bundesliga, in manager Hong's tactical judgment, he apparently deemed him insufficient to be a starter for our national team for some reason. To summarize, while there were disagreements within the national team, I believe they were at a level you would find in any organization.
▷ Kim Tae-hyun: Just the usual level found anywhere.
▶ Seo Hyeong-uk: However, because the period without interviews dragged on and the person who wanted to avoid them the most was Son Heung-min himself, the controversy grew. In reality, manager Hong Myung-bo never ordered the players in the locker room to quickly do interviews, and the situation was already such that he couldn't exert the kind of charismatic leadership we might expect.
▷ Kim Tae-hyun: But what I'm curious about is that speculative reports are pouring out. If this drags on, only the players suffer. People start wondering, "Is there bad blood between the players born in 1992 and those born in 1996?" The Korea Football Association (KFA) should clear this up, but they are keeping their mouths shut.
▶ Seo Hyeong-uk: That seems to be the case. First of all, the KFA is currently in a bit of an administrative vacuum. Since the president has decided to step down, the current executive board members are also essentially heading toward the end of their terms. There's that aspect.
▷ Kim Tae-hyun: Yes.
▶ Seo Hyeong-uk: And this seems to be a transitional phenomenon. The association officials are somewhat older, and in the past, we have never had so many players who play for world-renowned, "conglomerate-like" clubs. These players routinely live under immense spotlight, receiving top-tier treatment and training at highly prestigious, luxury clubs.
▷ Kim Tae-hyun: Yes.
▶ Seo Hyeong-uk: So when these players are called up to the national team, they might have complaints or various demands. When disagreements arise between the players and the association, it is realistically not easy for the KFA to manage them. We are going through such a period.
▷ Kim Tae-hyun: Yes.
▶ Seo Hyeong-uk: And because similar issues existed in the past, for instance, when the KFA appointed manager Jurgen Klinsmann, President Chung Mong-gyu once said, "Since Klinsmann is a senior Tottenham alumnus, wouldn't Son Heung-min listen to him well?"
▷ Kim Tae-hyun: That is incredibly simplistic logic, isn't it?
▶ Seo Hyeong-uk: Yes. And the sudden turn of events that led to the appointment of manager Hong Myung-bo was also triggered by the highly publicized clash among players during the last Asian Cup.
▷ Kim Tae-hyun: The table tennis incident?
▶ Seo Hyeong-uk: Right. Because of that, domestic football figures interpreted it as a need to establish discipline within the team, which led to the appointment of manager Hong Myung-bo.
▷ Kim Tae-hyun: But it still failed.
▶ Seo Hyeong-uk: Indeed, it has been proven once again that manager Hong Myung-bo does not particularly stand out in terms of other managerial capabilities.
▷ Kim Tae-hyun: Yes.
▶ Seo Hyeong-uk: Furthermore, while his ability to manage such players and exercise leadership was well-proven when he won the bronze medal at the Olympics with the youth national team and achieved some success in the K League, the senior national team level is different.
▷ Kim Tae-hyun: Yes.
▶ Seo Hyeong-uk: Therefore, in the long run, unless we bring in someone who has played in Europe or has been actively managing there with a modern, trendy approach—someone who can logically persuade the players and win their hearts through operational competence—there is a risk that this kind of situation will keep repeating for the time being.
▷ Kim Tae-hyun: So you're saying we should bring in someone like manager Paulo Bento and give them four years.
▶ Seo Hyeong-uk: Guaranteeing a long period is also important, yes.
▷ Kim Tae-hyun: But we have to choose wisely. We can't bring in someone like Klinsmann.
▶ Seo Hyeong-uk: Yes.
▷ Kim Tae-hyun: But right now, we have no manager and no president. Normally, we should elect the president first, set up the National Teams Committee, and then select a manager, but the Asian Cup is in January next year (January 2027).
▶ Seo Hyeong-uk: That's right.
▷ Kim Tae-hyun: At this rate, we might even fail to qualify. With no manager and this kind of atmosphere, what can we achieve? Catching up to Japan is out of the question, and we have the Asian Games and the next World Cup—the Spain-Portugal-Morocco World Cup—coming up.
▶ Seo Hyeong-uk: Yes.
▷ Kim Tae-hyun: I wonder if we can even qualify for that. Well, we probably will, since it's expanded to 48 countries, right?
▶ Seo Hyeong-uk: There are even talks of expanding it to 64 countries. We will likely make it to the finals. We have also already qualified for the Asian Cup finals.
▷ Kim Tae-hyun: We are qualified, but my point is, how are we going to manage it? Especially without a manager.
▶ Seo Hyeong-uk: Frankly, there is a consensus that given our national team's squad, almost any manager should be able to achieve a certain level of results.
▷ Kim Tae-hyun: A few days ago, a KBS report mentioned manager Lee Jung-hyo, who is currently managing Suwon Samsung and is highly regarded lately.
▶ Seo Hyeong-uk: But that is just a groundless rumor.
▷ Kim Tae-hyun: A rumor?
▶ Seo Hyeong-uk: Yes, a rumor. Because aside from the Asian Cup, we have matches coming up in September and October. FIFA's policy has changed recently, so the FIFA calendar runs from late September to early October, requiring us to play four A-matches within a span of about three weeks. Those matches are not far off. We need to call up the squad, train, and play, so we need to appoint a manager to oversee all of this. The problem is that the KFA, which should be managing this, has a president who announced his resignation. However, with government intervention, the government wants to ensure the next president is properly elected to normalize the organization. Thus, there are talks of delaying the current president's resignation. If the president resigns now, an indirect election under the current regulations must be held within 60 days through delegate voting—essentially a "gymnasium election."
▷ Kim Tae-hyun: So, even though things are already a mess, it might be better for President Chung to stay on a bit longer to organize things?
▶ Seo Hyeong-uk: The idea is to buy time to change the regulations, but realistically, that doesn't seem easy. In any case, because the appointment of the next permanent manager will likely be heavily delayed, it is highly probable that an interim manager will be appointed first, which is why domestic managers like the one you mentioned are being brought up.
▷ Kim Tae-hyun: Yes.
▶ Seo Hyeong-uk: But that is a highly disrespectful notion toward the K League. The K League is currently in the middle of its season.
▷ Kim Tae-hyun: If they take away a manager again...
▶ Seo Hyeong-uk: Exactly. Even if K League teams rest during the September international break, they still need to train and prepare for the resumption of the league. Taking their manager away, or pulling a manager who is already leading another team, like the Olympic team, to serve as an interim manager is problematic. We already saw this when manager Hwang Sun-hong took over as interim manager and we ended up failing to qualify for the Paris Olympics.
▷ Kim Tae-hyun: Yes.
▶ Seo Hyeong-uk: Because of these various issues, things need to move as quickly as possible.
▷ Kim Tae-hyun: Yes.
▶ Seo Hyeong-uk: So what I want to say is, if the government really wants to intervene and correct things, they need to hurry. If they are going to change the regulations, they should assess if it's feasible and proceed, or if President Chung Mong-gyu is going to step down anyway, they should have him resign quickly so the next executive board can take over as soon as possible.
▷ Kim Tae-hyun: Leadership is crucial. Who should be the manager? Can't we bring Bento back? He seemed to be the best fit.
▶ Seo Hyeong-uk: It might seem so right now, but I believe everything depends on the time, place, and occasion (TPO).
▷ Kim Tae-hyun: Bento is currently unemployed, isn't he?
▶ Seo Hyeong-uk: Yes, he is. However, we definitely need a discussion on who the right manager for us is at this specific time. For example, even Jose Mourinho didn't succeed with every team, and Guus Hiddink didn't succeed everywhere either.
▷ Kim Tae-hyun: That's true.
▶ Seo Hyeong-uk: I think we urgently need to establish a body that can make such objective judgments. We should quickly set up something like an emergency national team selection committee to make efforts to minimize the probability of failure this time.
▷ Kim Tae-hyun: What I find regrettable is that while winning or losing is important, during the Qatar World Cup, our players showed us what kind of football they play.
▶ Seo Hyeong-uk: I broadcasted the first match against Uruguay on-site. I was amazed. Regardless of the result, it moved us by showing that we are capable of playing that kind of football.
▷ Kim Tae-hyun: But now, that is gone.
▶ Seo Hyeong-uk: This time, it moved us in a different way, making us realize, "Ah, we are still playing this kind of football."
▷ Kim Tae-hyun: "Still playing this kind of football."
▶ Seo Hyeong-uk: Yes. Although we won our first match, our performance gradually declined. This tournament was another reminder that while each individual match is important, managing and planning for the entire schedule is crucial.
▷ Kim Tae-hyun: Understood. While catching up to Japan seems out of reach for now, we must perform well in the Asian Cup, win the A-matches in September, and prepare well for the next World Cup. I hope we appoint a good manager and succeed. We will wrap up here. That was football commentator Seo Hyeong-uk. Thank you.
▶ Seo Hyeong-uk: Thank you.
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When publishing the full text or quoting this interview, please specify the channel name and the exact program name as follows.
[SBS Kim Tae-hyun's Political Show]
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.
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