South Korea's president called it "utterly baffling." Fans booed the coach at the airport. Banners read: "South Korean football is dead." A group stage exit at the World Cup rarely triggers a constitutional-level meltdown — but this one has.
Hong Myung-bo resigned shortly after South Korea were eliminated, having won just one of their three matches in Group A. A 2-1 win over the Czech Republic gave early hope, but back-to-back 1-0 defeats to Mexico and South Africa sent them home. The flashpoint was Hong's decision to bench Son Heung-min against South Africa, holding him in reserve and introducing him at half-time with the score still 0-0. It never moved. Hong later admitted he'd have done things differently knowing how it played out — which isn't exactly the kind of tactical clarity that inspires confidence.
The appointment was already broken before a ball was kicked
Here's the thing: the rage on the streets of Seoul isn't really about those three games. The World Cup exit is just the moment everything boiled over.
Hong's appointment in July 2024 was contested from day one. The Korea Football Association had spent months conducting a search for Juergen Klinsmann's replacement — a search that apparently involved foreign candidates, structured interviews, and a proper committee process. Then they scrapped it, had a brief meeting with Hong, and handed him the job. Former national team midfielder Park Joo-ho, who sat on that search committee, was so disgusted he made a YouTube video about it. That's how bad the process looked to the people inside it.
South Korea's sports ministry agreed. It ruled in October 2024 that the KFA had breached its own rules in appointing both Hong and Klinsmann before him. A court later found flaws in the process and insufficient board deliberation. The KFA appealed. The police were already investigating complaints before the World Cup even started.
KFA President Chung Mong-gyu had announced in May he'd step down after the tournament. He knew what was coming.
Where this goes now
South Korea go into a messy rebuilding phase with no coach, a discredited governing body, and a squad that genuinely contains elite talent. Son Heung-min, Lee Kang-in, Kim Min-jae — these are players performing at the highest level in European football week in, week out. The system around them has repeatedly failed to build anything coherent, and that's the problem that no single resignation fixes.
The ruling Democratic Party is planning a parliamentary hearing into the World Cup failure. President Lee Jae Myung has asked the sports ministry to investigate and prevent a recurrence. Hong, for his part, flew to the United States after the airport scenes and told broadcaster MBC he didn't know when he'd return.
The next question — who coaches South Korea — matters less right now than whether the KFA can overhaul how it makes that decision. Given their track record with Klinsmann and Hong, the process itself is the problem. South Korean football's odds of turning this around improve significantly only if the structure changes, not just the name on the contract.
