Embarrassing defeat in FIFA World Cup 2026: South Korean coach resigns, President strongly rebukes ‘nepotism’!

There has been a tremendous upheaval in the sports world of the country after the sudden exit of the South Korean football team from the group stage of the FIFA World Cup 2026. After this failure of the team in the tournament, head coach Hong Myungbo has been infuriated and he has resigned from his post with immediate effect. Interestingly, South Korea had started their campaign in great style and defeated Czechia 2-1 in the first match. But after this, the team’s fortunes changed such that it had to face two painful defeats against Mexico and South Africa by a margin of 1-0. Due to these defeats, the team slipped to third place in the group and by failing to make it even among the best third placed 8 teams, it was completely out of the World Cup race.

Coach Hong Myungbo took full responsibility for the failure, apologized wholeheartedly to the fans

After this crushing defeat and early exit from the tournament, 57-year-old head coach Hong Myungbo gave an emotional press conference. He took full responsibility for the failure of the South Korea team in the FIFA World Cup 2026. Apologizing to the country’s millions of football fans, Hong said, ‘I sincerely apologize to all the Korean people who have always supported our national team unconditionally. I tried to fulfill this responsibility with full honesty and integrity, but I could not give the results that the country expected. As a head coach, the end result is what matters most and I failed in that, that is why I am resigning from my post.

The journey from a veteran player to becoming a coach: How was Hong’s entire tenure?

Before becoming a coach, Hong Myungbo was one of the most legendary and respected players in the history of South Korean football. He played a record 136 matches for the country in his international career. He started his coaching career in the year 2009. Before this, he had also been the head coach of the national team in 2013 and 2014. In the year 2024, he took charge of the South Korea national team for the second time. In his second tenure, the team played a total of 26 matches, out of which the team won 15, lost 6 matches and 5 matches were drawn. In his farewell message, Hong said that even though he is leaving the post of coach, his love for Korean football will never diminish and he will always stand by the team as a true supporter.

President Lee Jae-myung got angry: ‘The team was selected on the basis of nepotism instead of ability’

The anger of the country’s President Lee Jae-myung has reached the seventh sky due to South Korea’s exit from the World Cup so soon. By sharing a very scathing post on X (Twitter), he has lambasted coach Hong Myungbo and the team management. The President has cited favoritism and ‘nepotism’ in team selection as the main reasons for this shameful defeat. He has demanded a high-level inquiry into the poor performance of the national team and the team selection process under the supervision of the Sports Ministry.

President Lee Jae-myung said in strong words, ‘I am not only surprised by this unexpected result, but completely baffled. It was expected that our team would easily advance from this relatively easy group. But once again it has been proved that decisions related to team selection are the most important. When ‘us versus them’ (bias) is given priority instead of competence and an unqualified person is chosen as a leader, the result is just as clear and disastrous. He further said that in such wrong appointments, personal gain is given priority instead of public good, hence it is very important to investigate such officers and hold them accountable.