South Korea World Cup exit
Photo: Dolores Ochoa /AP/TT

South Korea World Cup exit sparks president’s apology and coach Hong Myung-Bo’s resignation

South Korea underperformed and was eliminated from the World Cup after the group stage. After that, President Lee Jae-Myung apologized to his people and blamed “incompetent people” - then national team captain Hong Myung-Bo resigned.

Advertisement

South Korea, the 2002 World Cup quarter-finalists, won only one match at the World Cup, 2-1 over the Czech Republic, and after three days of waiting, their hopes of becoming one of the eight best third-place teams to advance to the round of 16 disappeared.

Unpopular national team coach Hong Myung-Bo benched star veteran Son Heung-Min in the final group game against South Africa, a 1-0 loss.

"When loyalty and factionalism are valued more than competence, and incompetent people are put in senior leadership positions, the result is inevitable. I apologise profusely to our audience," South Korean President Lee Jae-Myung wrote on X, promising changes "so that something like this never happens again."

Later on Sunday, Hong Myung-Bo announced at a press conference at South Korea's World Cup base in Mexico that he was resigning, several media outlets reported.

In this story
AuthorTT News AgencyEnglish edition by Sweden Herald, adapted for our readers
Was this useful?

What do you think?

Keep readingmore from Sports

All