Revolving Door? KFA Appoints Kim Ho-gon as Technical Director

The KFA’s part-time President, Chung Mong-gyu, has appointed KFA Vice-President Kim Ho-gon as director of the technical committee.

The 66 year-old replaces Lee Yong-soo as the committee chief, whose primary goal is to oversee the status of various national teams. The technical director himself is responsible for meeting with potential manager candidates and selecting the successful candidate.

Kim has been involved with the KFA for as long as memory goes. He was an assistant coach at the 1986 World Cup, the 1988 and 1992 Olympics, and the manager of the 2004 Olympics Team. He later managed both Busan I’Park and Ulsan Hyundai in the K League, overseeing the latter’s 2012 Asian Champions League victory.

In 2015, Chung appointed Kim to the vice-presidency of the Korean Football Association, after 4 years of experience as the association’s “executive director”.

Kim’s first duty will, of course, be to appoint the next manager of the national team, after Uli Stielike agreed mutual termination of his contract at former technical director Lee Yong-soo’s wish.

Opinion

Welp.

What an uninspiring pick.

A veritable revolving door, this KFA business. In came a crony, out came a crony, in came another crony.

If Bet365 ran odds for “next probable manager of the national team”, Huh Jung-moo would probably be 1/100, or -1000, or whatever gambling odds shout out “highly likely”.

If one safe hiring deserves another, Huh Jung-moo, formerly a KFA vice-president, will be behind the bench come August. Kim and Huh are known to be rather close and have worked together on multiple occasions. (Kim actually took Huh’s VP job after Huh resigned.)

There’s really nothing much to say, other than that Chung Mong-gyu, finally back from his week-long business trip for his main job as chairman as Hyundai Developmental Company, picked one of his right-hand men to fix the same mistakes made by the previous management, and the one before, and the one before…

I wouldn’t be too bemused if the game plan from here on out would be: Qualify for the World Cup. And worry about everything else later.

But there’s absolutely no indication, with this hiring or anything else the KFA does, that they even recognize the problems.

About Tim Lee 321 Articles
The maple syrup guzzling kimchijjigae craving Korean-Canadian, eh?

2 Comments

  1. Even more laughably, Lee Yong-soo has returned to VP to replace Kim Ho-gon. Basically, they just swapped jobs. Because that’s just what the KFA needs…!

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