It was a “catastrophe” to fail to qualify for the Olympic Games for the first time in 40 years, but the head of South Korean soccer, Chung Mong-kyu, was nowhere to be found.
South Korea lost to Indonesia 10-11 on penalties after a 2-2 draw in the quarterfinals of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) U-23 Asian Cup 2024 in Doha, Qatar, on June 26.
The tournament served as the final qualifier for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris in July.
Asian nations were allotted 3.5 soccer berths, meaning they needed to finish at least third to go directly to Paris.
A fourth-place finish would have meant a playoff (PO) against Guinea, the fourth-ranked team in the African region, to qualify for the Olympics.
However, South Korea was eliminated in the quarterfinals, ending their PO hopes.
This ended South Korea’s streak of nine consecutive Olympic qualifications from Seoul 1988 to Tokyo 2020.
After qualifying for the last eight consecutive Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro 2016, a world record, 바카라사이트 South Korea had hoped to extend their streak to 10 with a spot in Paris, but they fell short.
It’s been 40 years since South Korea’s men’s soccer team failed to qualify for the Olympics since Los Angeles 1984.
The 40-year-old tower has fallen, and the head of South Korean soccer, Chung Mong-kyu, is no longer at the helm.
The team’s head coach, Hwang Sun-hong, said at his return press conference last month, “I’m sorry and apologize to everyone and to our players. The responsibility lies solely with me, the head coach. I realize the responsibility,” he said, bowing his head.
President Jeong Jung-sung, who gave Hwang a “two-job” with the A team in March and did not ensure that he would be able to focus on the Olympic team, was also heavily criticized by soccer fans.
Although he hasn’t commented since the elimination
Chung had said at the time of Hwang’s appointment that he would be responsible for what he would do if the results of everything turned out to be negative. Now the time has come to take that responsibility.
At least he chose the word “responsibility” and didn’t hide behind it, even though it could have been a slip of the tongue, as he broke a 40-year record that no single chairperson can do again.
On the other hand, Chung, who should have been the first to apologize, was nowhere to be found.
If there was any consolation, the KFA released a short statement on its website saying, “We would like to express our deepest apologies to football fans, footballers, and the public for the failure to qualify for the Paris Olympics.”
The next official media activity will be the announcement of the successor to Jürgen Klinsmann (GER), according to the federation.
This means that there will be no press releases or briefings on why the team exited the U-23 Asian Cup early and what plans they have to get the age-group representation back on track.
This means that there will be no apologies for the tragedy, or any talk of preventing it from happening again.
However, for the sake of disappointed soccer fans, they should have revealed what their plans are.
A short statement from the soccer federation, followed by a silent and irresponsible stance, 사설 토토사이트 is not going to quell the backlash from soccer fans.
It’s not just a matter of deflecting attention away from the issue of the national team coach. It’s time for Mr. Chung and the rest of the FIFA leadership to realize that you can’t move forward without looking back.