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Controversial KFA president Chung Mong-gyu elected to fourth term

Published: 26 Feb. 2025, 16:34 Updated: 26 Feb. 2025, 17:42

JIM BULLEY
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Chung Mong-gyu reacts after being elected to a fourth term as Korea Football Association president in central Seoul on Feb. 26. [YONHAP]

Korea Football Association President Chung Mong-gyu was elected to a fourth term in a landslide victory on Wednesday despite facing widespread criticism from fans and a government probe into accusations that he meddled in the appointment of the last two Korean national team managers.

Chung won the election with 156 of the 192 available votes, sweeping past opposition from veteran coach Huh Jung-moo with 15 votes and football administrator and commentator Shin Mun-sun with 11 votes.

With the election completed, Chung immediately starts a fourth term as KFA president. He will hold the position to the start of 2029.

Chung has been an active figure in the football industry for decades, having held multiple roles including owning K League teams Ulsan Hyundai, now called Ulsan HD, and Jeonbuk Hyundai Dinos, now called Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors in the 1990s. He was the K League president from 2011 to 2013 and a former Vice President of the AFC. He was first elected KFA president in 2013.

A series of questionable decisions as a football administrator have overshadowed his career.

In 2023, Chung drew criticism from across the football world for unilaterally pardoning 100 people banned or suspended from Korean football for infractions that included match-fixing. He was eventually forced to reverse that decision.

Chung Mong-kyu, president of the Korea Football Association, attends an executive meeting to discuss the national team and manager Jurgen Klinsmann's spot at its helm at the KFA House in Jongno District, southern Seoul on Feb. 16, 2024. [NEWS1]

He is a member of the Hyundai-owning Chung family, and through that relationship is the de facto owner of K League 2 club Busan IPark. His tumultuous relationship with fans started as early as 2007 there, when he allowed the team’s newly-appointed manager to manage the Korean Olympic football team only two weeks after he’d committed to the club.

But the current controversy surrounding Chung is perhaps the biggest he’s faced yet, with loud calls over the last year from fans for him to resign and even from the government for him to be suspended.

That criticism stems from what detractors say were unfair and opaque processes to hire the past two men's national team head coaches, Jurgen Klinsmann and Hong Myung-bo. The controversy surrounding Hong's appointment in July prompted the sports ministry to launch a probe into KFA's operations.

In the results of that probe, announced on Nov. 5, the government found that Chung had ordered Technical Director Lee Lim-saeng to take charge of the appointment of Hong, leading Lim to bypass the selection committee and offer Hong the job. Neither Chung nor Lim was supposed to have any role in the appointment.

The probe also found that former National Team Committee Head Michael Muller had drawn up a shortlist before a selection committee even existed the previous year, and that Chung had interviewed two candidates and appointed Klinsmann. Again, the KFA chief should not have had any role in the appointment.

Fans have been extremely vocal in their criticism of Chung in recent months, with a large KFA logo arranged with black ribbons like the picture of the deceased at a Korean mourning altar making an appearance at recent national team games.

Korean national team supporters wave banners saying ″Chung Mong-gyu out″ during a World Cup qualifier against Thailand at Seoul World Cup Stadium in western Seoul on March 21, 2024. [NEWS1]

Against that backdrop, Chung returns to the helm of the KFA for another four years. During his campaign he promised more transparency in the manager appointment process and to personally donate 5 billion won ($3.5 million) for the construction of the National Football Center in Cheonan, South Chungcheong.

He also promised that he will scrap the current K League promotion and relegation system that applies between leagues at the same level — professional, semi-professional or amateur — and complete the new system covering the K League 1 to K7 by 2027 that will allow an amateur K7 to reach all the way to the first division.

BY JIM BULLEY [[email protected]]