As South Korea’s soccer team was eliminated in the group stage of the 2026 World Cup, former Korea Football Association Strengthening Committee member Park Joo-ho’s past remarks have come back into the spotlight.

In a video posted in July 2024 on the channel ″Captain PaChuHo,″ Park Joo-ho discussed the process of appointing the national team coach with commentator Kim Hwan. He revealed that he joined the Strengthening Committee after receiving a call from Chairman Jeong Hae-seong, who said they were looking for young retired players familiar with European football trends. Despite objections from those around him, Park accepted the role due to his deep concerns about the problems in Korean football.

Regarding the pool of coaching candidates, Park said about coach Hervé Renard, ″He is a good and proven coach, but whether he really wanted to take charge of the Korean national team, as portrayed in the media, was always a question mark.″ He named John Herdman, the current Canada national team coach, as a candidate he had recommended, recalling, ″Coach Herdman was the most realistic candidate among those we had prepared. We had many personal conversations, and I asked him about the style of football he intended to play. He had long shown great interest in Korean players.″ Under Herdman’s leadership, Canada defeated South Africa in the Round of 32 at this World Cup and advanced to the Round of 16. South Africa was the team that defeated Korea in the group stage.

When the production team informed Park Joo-ho of the news about coach Hong Myung-bo’s appointment during the video recording, Park reacted with, ″Really?″ Commentator Kim Hwan described the atmosphere, saying, ″Former Strengthening Committee member Park Joo-ho was also very surprised by the news.″

Regarding the domestic coach selection process, Park criticized, ″Most of the candidates were currently managing teams. They had prepared for the entire season, so I wondered if it was appropriate to take them away to become the national team coach.″ He added, ″The association should have talked to the coaches first to some extent and, once progress was made, explained the process smoothly to the clubs and fans.″

At that time, coach Hong Myung-bo was leading Ulsan Hyundai, and Ulsan fans strongly opposed the Korea Football Association’s appointment method.

On the temporary coach appointment procedure, Park said, ″This is not like electing a class president, yet they chose the national team coach by vote,″ and added, ″It was hard to understand when they should have been assessing each coach’s strengths and weaknesses.″ He also stated, ″Many committee members unconditionally supported domestic coaches,″ and lamented, ″The past five months were futile. I felt the Strengthening Committee was unnecessary. Nothing was done properly within the procedure.″

The national team coach appointment process was later discussed in the National Assembly and the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism audits. Despite the controversy, Hong Myung-bo’s appointment proceeded, and South Korea was eliminated in the World Cup group stage.