“Final negotiators will be selected at the next meeting”.
The Korea Football Association (KFA) released the details of the ninth KFA Power Enhancement Committee meeting on the 18th. The meeting reportedly discussed the appointment of the national team’s head coach, which is an urgent priority. The 12 candidates were introduced to each other and evaluated after watching match videos.
The official head coach position of the Korean national soccer team has been “vacant” since Jürgen Klinsmann was sacked in February after the team’s quarterfinal exit at the 2022 Qatar Asian Cup. The KFA survived four months with an interim coach. South Korea played four matches (three wins and a draw) under interim coach Hwang Sun-hong in March and Kim Do-hoon in June, qualifying for the third 현금홀덤사이트 Asian qualifying round for the FIFA Confederations Cup North America 2026.
The fact that the national team has gone through two interim coaching stints highlights the KFA’s lack of negotiation skills. After sacking Klinsmann in February, KFA chairman Jeong Jung-sung said after the first meeting that he hoped to have a permanent coach in place by the March A match. However, time was running out, and the KFA ultimately decided to buy time by appointing Hwang Sun-hong, then the head coach of the Korean U-23 national team, as interim coach.
After Hwang’s interim stint ended with a 1-1 draw at the March AFCON, the KFA promised to appoint a permanent head coach by mid-May and move away from the interim system starting with the June AFCON, but that promise was never fulfilled. The KFA did go to the negotiating table in earnest. Former Leeds United boss Jesse Massa was the favorite to succeed Klinsmann, but financial negotiations failed to reach an agreement. Negotiations with the second-ranked candidate, Iraq national team coach Jesús Casas, also broke down, leading the KFA to change its mind and say that the June A-League matches will be played under an interim manager.
As if to put the past behind it, the KFA has once again promised to fill the official head coach position by early July. “We are planning to appoint a head coach by the end of June at the earliest and early July at the latest,” said Jeong Jung-sung, chairman of the KFA’s Power Enhancement Committee, in an interview with KBS on June 12.
Following that interview, the KFA said of the 9th Power Enhancement Committee meeting, which was held behind closed doors and where the coach was officially mentioned, “The meeting lasted for about five hours at the KFA headquarters in Seoul. Nine members of the committee attended the meeting, including Chairman Jeong Jung-sung,” explaining that Yoon Jeong-hwan attended via video conference and Park Sung-bae was absent.
“At the meeting, each of the 12 candidates for the head coach introduced their careers and watched match videos. The match videos were compiled by the KFA’s analysis team after the last eight meetings, focusing on key tactical details such as offensive and defensive organization and playing style.”
Regarding the viewing of the analytical videos of the 12 coaching candidates, the KFA said, “Through this, we collected individual evaluation opinions from the members and recommended the candidates for negotiation. We will select the final negotiating candidates (some names) at the next meeting. In addition, after the selection of the final negotiation targets, we will keep the future schedule and proceedings private to ensure smooth negotiations and contracts until the completion of the negotiations.”