The sports ministry said Wednesday the Korea Football Association violated several rules in hiring the men's national team head coach Hong Myung-bo, rejecting the national football federation's claim that it had followed the proper process.
The ministry announced interim results of its probe into the operations of the KFA, prompted by the controversial hiring of Hong in July.
The move sparked public outrage, with fans arguing that the KFA didn't put Hong through the same kind of rigorous vetting process that other candidates had been subjected to earlier this year.
Hong, who had earlier turned down the KFA's overtures, accepted the job after a hastily scheduled meeting with Lee Lim-saeng, the KFA's technical director thrust into the lead role in the coaching search.
The KFA has countered in recent weeks that it had never broken any rules, but the ministry noted that Lee's meeting with Hong cannot be considered a proper interview.
The ministry also said Lee did not have the right to run the hiring process. The KFA's National Teams Committee is supposed to be in charge, but after the committee's chief, Chung Hae-sung, resigned in late June, Lee was put in charge.
Despite the KFA's claim that the remaining committee members had agreed to let Lee take over, the ministry's probe found that Lee, as the technical official, should not have been at the helm of the process.
The ministry also said the KFA had also not followed proper steps in hiring Jurgen Klinsmann, Hong's predecessor, in early 2023. (Yonhap)
