South Korean football coach Hong Myung-bo was met with jeers upon his arrival at the Incheon International Airport in the early hours of Tuesday (30 June) alongside 26 players and other football officials.
This comes after the team’s premature elimination from the FIFA World Cup, placing 34th out of 48 nations — the country’s worst performance in its World Cup history.
According to The Chosun Daily, the airport’s arrival hall was filled with over 200 fans after news of the flight’s arrival spread.
This prompted the deployment of police officers, who cordoned off a path from inside the terminal to a vehicle outside the gate for the team’s safe passage.
Source: The Korea Herald
Shouts and jeers reportedly grew louder when the group arrived alongside the head of the World Cup national team support group, Park Hang-seo, and the executive director of the Korea Football Association, Kim Seung-hee.
It is the first time since 2002 that the national team, the Taegeuk Warriors, returned from a World Cup held abroad without a welcome event at the airport.
Ahead of returning to South Korea, Hong announced his resignation from his role as the head coach of the national football team.
“I would like to offer my sincere apologies to the people of Korea who love soccer and supported the national team,” he said at a press conference in Mexico on Sunday.
“We did not deliver the results the fans expected, and the responsibility falls entirely on me,” he added.
Before he stepped down, South Korea president Lee Jae Myung criticised the “haphazard appointment” of the head coach in an X post.
“When favouritism and cronyism take precedence over competence in selecting a commander, the result is as predictable as fire burning paper,” he wrote.
Source: @Jaemyung_Lee on X
The president also called on the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism to investigate the exact cause of the team’s loss and devise measures to prevent its recurrence.
Hong’s appointment as head coach in July 2024 was met with opposition as proper procedures were allegedly not followed, The Korea Times reported.
South Korea was in Group A with Mexico, the Czechia, and South Africa at this year’s World Cup.
The tournament started well for them, with a 2-1 win over Czechia.
However, successive 1-0 defeats against Mexico and South Africa meant South Korea finished third in the group.
With the new World Cup format, the eight best third-place teams qualify for the knockout rounds along with the top two nations from each of the twelve groups.
However, South Korea came in 10th of the 12 teams and crashed out of the World Cup group stage, The Chosun Daily reported.
Also read: Head coach Hong Myung-bo resigns after South Korea’s early exit from World Cup
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Featured image adapted from The Korea Herald.