Hong Myung-Bo Quits as South Korea Coach After World
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- Hong Myung-Bo resigned Sunday as South Korea coach, a day after the team's World Cup elimination following an opening win over Czechia and losses to South Africa and Mexico in Group A.
- South Korea's hopes of advancing as one of the best third-place teams ended when Congo beat Uzbekistan 3-1 on Saturday.
- President Lee Jae Myung issued a lengthy public statement calling the result "unexpected" and declaring "personnel decisions determine everything," criticizing the national team's structure and Hong's appointment as rewarding "loyalty and factionalism" over "competence."
- At Sunday's media appearance, Hong read a prepared statement without taking questions, apologizing to fans and saying he had "never considered any other reasons or excuses" once he accepted the role.
- The 57-year-old Hong was in his second stint as South Korea coach — he also led the team at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, where they likewise failed to advance past the group stage.
- The president ordered the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism to review the national team's failures and pledged to "reform sports administration" so the result "does not happen again."
Why it matters: Hong's exit marks his second consecutive group-stage World Cup failure, and the sitting president's direct public attack on the appointment process — calling it a triumph of "loyalty and factionalism over competence" — is an unusually blunt executive intervention that pressures the Korean Football Association to justify or overhaul how its coach is selected before the next cycle.
