Don't Hide."

Coach Park, who attended the 2024 Hana Bank K-League 2024 opening media day at The Plaza Hotel in Seoul on the 26th, said, "It's an abnormal situation."

"It's abnormal in terms of the system as well," coach Park said of the current situation. "It's something that someone should talk courageously about. Why do we keep hiding? Why do we have to hide when we are the owners? We need to return to normal when things are abnormal. It makes no sense that all Koreans are paying close attention to the state of soccer and are not following the system and doing it carelessly. Even when I was at the power reinforcement committee, I said that. I am always branded as a person who says bad things," he fumed.

Coach Park, who was appointed as the chairman of the Technical Research Group (TSG), which was newly established within the K-League Technical Committee in 2020, was appointed to the Korea Football Association's power reinforcement committee in January 2023 along with Gwangju FC coach Lee Jung-hyo. He is one of the most well-informed officials of the KFA's decision to appoint Klinsmann.

Coach Park stressed, "It will take time for the current unfair system to go back to normal, but I hope that it will be equipped properly and pass on good things to my juniors. As a soccer player, I have been there, felt it with my body, and heard it, so we should not hide this and continue to speak out."

The Korea Football Association has been heavily criticized for dismissing Coach Jurgen Klinsmann just one year after his inauguration due to poor performance at the Asian Cup. In the meantime, critics say that the process to appoint Klinsmann is wrong.

Moreover, there was a conflict with K-League fans in the process of appointing Klinsmann as the new coach. The scandal erupted when the Korea Football Association felt that it was considering some active K-League coaches to replace Klinsmann. While former and current K-League coaches and coaches with experience in leading the national team have been on the list, even specific names such as Ulsan Hyundai coach Hong Myung-bo, FC Seoul coach Kim Ki-dong, former FC Seoul coach Choi Yong-soo, and Olympic national team coach Hwang Sun-hong have been mentioned.

Article 12 of the National Team Coach Appointment Regulations (Appointment of Coaches, etc.) ② stipulates that if a person appointed to Paragraph 1 (a national team coach, coach, trainer, etc. shall be appointed by the board of directors at the recommendation of the National Team Strengthening Committee or the Technology Development Committee in accordance with the National Team Leader Selection Standards), the head of the relevant club shall be notified and the head of the club shall comply with it unless otherwise specified. This means that there is no way for the club to prevent it.

If an incumbent K-League coach is appointed as the head coach of the national team, the team in question will inevitably suffer massive loss. The K-League will kick off with the East Coast Derby between Ulsan and Pohang on September 1. With the opening of the K-League only a week away, all teams are now focusing on the opening match.

Not only K-League fans but also Korean soccer fans are very angry about the name of current K-League coaches just before the opening of the season. At 11:30 a.m. on the 16th, when Chairman Chung Mong-kyu and other executives of the Korea Football Association held an executive meeting on national team-related issues, a close call arrived at the soccer hall in Jongno-gu, Seoul. The wreath, which arrived under the name of "Korean soccer fans," was engraved with the phrase, "How can the K-League be easy to waste domestic coaches?"

Ulsan HD coach Hong Myung-bo confessed about the rumor of the appointment of the national team coach, saying, "It was very difficult for a few days."

Director Hong said, "It was very difficult to continue to appear in the media without my will," and added, "But as I said then, I didn't know anything at all. As a result, it was a very difficult time because it reminded me of the old days."

Coach Hong's name continued to rise and fall just a week before the opening match against Pohang on the 1st of next month.

On the 23rd, Ulsan Hyundai Supporters' Cheoyong Warrior issued a statement saying, "We express strong regret over the decision of the Korea Football Association to appoint the coach of the K-League active coach team reported by many media outlets," adding, "We strongly condemn the appointment of all K-League active coaches, including Hong Myung-bo, and we will not hesitate to make any effort to protect them."

"The K-League is no longer the exclusive property of following the decision of the association, and it is the result of efforts made by fans, players, clubs, and coaches," he said. "I hope the association will no longer use the K-League coach as a shield to avoid their mistakes and solve the main situation with a heavy sense of responsibility and awareness."

He also warned, "Cheoyong Warrior demands that the discussion on the appointment of the active manager of the league itself be invalidated, and declares that any collective action will be taken to that end."

In addition, Cheoyong staged a truck protest. On the same day, he sent a truck to the KFA headquarters with an electronic sign that said, "Firefighters are not a public good when necessary, and coach Hong Myung-bo is not a public good."

In response, Hong said, "It was difficult in itself," adding, "I've been in the association a long time ago and now I'm in the K League. It was heartbreaking to see people in important positions in Korean soccer being a little confrontational."

He added, "The most important thing is that I had no personal thoughts in that area. But it was a little hard because this (my name) kept coming out."

On the 20th, the Korea Football Association formed a new national team power reinforcement committee to appoint a new coach to lead the Korean national soccer team.

Chung Hae-sung, who assisted Guus Hiddink and led the semifinals of the FIFA 2002 Korea-Japan World Cup, was appointed as the chairman of the power reinforcement committee. In addition, new figures such as Jeong Go-woon (Kimpo FC coach), Park Sung-bae (Sungsil University coach), Park Joo-ho (commentator), Song Myung-won (former Gwangju FC head coach), Yoon Deok-yeo (Sejong Sports Toto coach), Yoon Jeong-hwan (Gangwon FC coach), Lee Mi-yeon (Moon Kyung-moo coach), Lee Sang-ki (QMIT representative, former soccer player), Lee Young-jin (former Vietnamese national team coach) and Kyung-joon (former chairman of the professional soccer federation) will be included in the power reinforcement committee.

Jung Hae-sung, the new chairman of the power reinforcement committee, revealed a total of eight criteria for appointment, starting with tactical capabilities, including fostering, justification, career, communication, leadership, human system, and ability to achieve results.

Chairman Chung said, "If a foreign coach is appointed in this regard or the identification of national team players, it takes a lot of time in time, but in that regard, he should provide the maximum amount of time to grasp the approach." "If we decide to be a domestic coach, the incumbent coach will not have a big problem. Even if a coach who is resting is decided, I think that kind of coach will have a grasp on the national team players," the next national team coach said.

In addition, while the name of a specific person is being mentioned, Chairman Chung said, "I told the new committee members that there is no decision to show their hands or do it by external pressure when appointing this director. Some people said, "I won't be a committee member if I come and sit down." He promised to make the appointment fair.

The power reinforcement committee held a closed second meeting held at the soccer hall in Sinmun-ro, Seoul on the 24th. In the meeting, it is known that the government changed its direction to appoint a formal coach by leaving the matches against Thailand in the 3rd and 4th rounds of the second qualifying round for the 2026 North-Central America World Cup scheduled at the Seoul World Cup Stadium on March 21 and Rajamangala Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand on March 26.

Like Klinsmann, if he dropped out of the team after coaching previous Korean national teams, he was replaced in various ways. In 2005, Dick Advogat was appointed as the coach for the first time in 39 days. In 2011, when Cho Kwang-rae had to resign due to poor performance, Choi Kang-hee, then coach of Jeonbuk Hyundai, voluntarily resigned after leading the national team until June 2013. When Uli Stielike was dismissed due to poor performance in the Asian qualifiers held a year before the 2018 World Cup in Russia, Shin Tae-yong was appointed as the coach to replace him and participated in the 2018 World Cup finals in Russia.

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