Chairman Chung Mong-gyu's statement on Chapter 6 of A4 distributed to members of the National Assembly's stylistic committee
Sep 25, 2024
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Chung Mong-kyu, president of the Korea Football Association, repeatedly said he was sorry after questioning pending issues at the National Assembly's Culture, Sports and Tourism Committee on the 24th.
At the main building of the National Assembly in Yeouido, Seoul, about nine hours of questions and crossfire against Chairman Chung and A national team coach Hong Myung-bo poured in. After Klinsmann's resignation, he was criticized with intense pressure questions on the process of appointing the national team coach. Chairman Chung appeared to speak calmly without much agitation despite the pressure of "Stop it" and opposition to a fourth consecutive term challenge, sharp criticism of some witnesses sitting right behind him, relay calls from lawmakers, and criticism from lawmakers.
Chairman Chung wrote a six-page letter and placed it on the desks of the members before the start of the writing committee, ahead of the questioning on the issue, which was attended by five people including Chairman Chung, A national team coach Hong Myung-bo, technical director of the association Lee Im-saeng, former chairman of the Korea Electric Power Reinforcement Committee Jung Hae-sung, and former member Park Joo-ho. Due to the limited time of each of the 16 ruling and opposition members, the questions are long and the witnesses' answers are short, so the explanation of the major issues was included in advance.Chairman Chung "I didn't express well what I was trying to explain. Another opportunity was not given. I briefly wrote something down for you (in the morning). I'm sorry that I didn't express it well.'
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Below is the full text of Chapter 6 of the position, titled 「To the members of the Committee on Culture, Sports and Tourism」 delivered by Chairman Chung Mong-gyu to the members of the Committee on Culture, Sports and Tourism.
As the president of the Korea Football Association, I feel sorry for the fact that the National Assembly directly explained what happened in the process of appointing the coach of the Korean national soccer team. I sincerely hope that today's meeting will serve as an opportunity to deepen our understanding of each other while dispelling controversies and misunderstandings in our society over the appointment of the national team coach.
First of all, I feel a lot of responsibility as the president of the Korea Football Association for the first time in history to hold pending questions at the National Assembly due to the appointment of the national team coach. In the meantime, the fact that the Korea Football Association failed to reveal all the details of the negotiation process on the appointment of a coach was not to plot or hide the reality. It was not intended to select a specific person through an unfair process. Rather, it is because the process of selecting the national team coach itself, one of the most important positions in Korean soccer, deserves sufficient protection. This is because in order to bring good people as the national team coach in the future, the privacy of those who failed or were excluded due to incorrect conditions during the previous negotiations must be sufficiently protected.
One of the most important principles in personnel management is that we do not disclose applicants who have not been selected. For example, if a competent employee of Apple or Nvidia supports Samsung Electronics or LG Electronics, the applicant's status and specific interview details are of course treated as confidential. This will be true not only for private companies, but also for public companies and government personnel. In addition, it is polite and common sense not to know what advantages and disadvantages the applicants had in the discussion process or what rank they were ranked. Only successful applicants will be announced. This is the case with all major personnel processes. On the other hand, if you look at the process of appointing the national team coach, the contents of the meeting of the power reinforcement committee that carried out the work were exposed to the media in almost real time. Later, the names and even rankings of those mentioned as candidates were known. This should not be repeated again in the future. Even if there is a competent foreign leader we want to invite in the future, if the entire process is exposed like this, who will apply for the position of coach of the Korean national team and take over the team.
This situation is not only for foreign leaders but also for domestic leaders. The domestic leaders that our association considered as candidates for the national team are all like the treasure of Korean soccer, which did well in the K-League or international competitions. If the discussion process of domestic candidates is known and openly discussed, it will satisfy fans' curiosity and provide interesting stories, but it will never be a constructive process. This selection process and public opinion formation process have taught us that we should not select the coach of the Korean national soccer team in this way in the future. Unlike Europe and South America, Korea still belongs to the periphery of the global soccer market. Unfortunately, the reality is that the size of the soccer market is still not possible to select a leader who can meet the level of domestic fans at any time we want.
As a result, I personally feel sorry for director Hong Myung-bo, who was appointed through this difficult discussion process. Starting with the encouragement and applause of many fans for his appointment as the national team coach, he has to produce good results and results in the third qualifying round of the North-China World Cup at hand, and I am sorry that it has become an environment where I cannot focus solely on the game due to external variables. The Palestinian match, which took place at the Seoul World Cup Stadium earlier this month, would be an example of such regret. Soccer can only perform well if players, coaches, and fans are united and focus on the game. There is no such thing as a winning game in soccer. The case where South Korea beat then world No. 1 Germany 2-0 at the 2018 World Cup in Russia illustrates that. Soccer is a very sensitive game, and depending on the psychological state of the players, they have no choice but to go through a lot of ups and downs. I hope that the remaining World Cup qualifiers will have a match where players, coaches, and fans will become one.
I would like to thank everyone who participated in the Power Reinforcement Committee over the past five months and worked hard to appoint a new director. I believe that the issue of the appointment process was also part of the process of finding a coach who is essential to Korean soccer. However, I believe that it would have hurt the trust of each other who participated in the Committee on Power Enhancement to disclose the discussion process that the Commission supported and recommended whom and which others preferred.
I can tell you clearly that while I was working as the president of the Korea Football Association, I have never elected a national team coach against the recommendations of the current power enhancement committee or the technical committee before. At the time of appointment, the chairmen recommended priorities by maximizing their technical expertise. Of course, I have given procedural advice in the actual negotiations with candidates in the position of being in charge of the administration of the association, but I have never said what to do with a particular person. I can confidently tell anyone that Stielike, Shin Tae-yong, Bento, Klinsman, Hwang Sun-hong, Kim Do-hoon, and Hong Myung-bo, who led the national team during my term, were all like that.
This time, I will tell you about the Korea Football Center, which is included in the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism's Soccer Association's audit. The Korea Football Center, which started construction in April 2022 at 129 Gasan-ri, Ipjang-myeon, Cheonan-si, is expected to be completed around May next year.
Let me first explain the reason for the construction of the Cheonan Center. As the president of the Korea Football Association, I was able to see how much investment and support the associations and governments around the world have to increase the competitiveness of the country's soccer, and I confirmed with my own eyes that there is no future for Korean soccer if we settle down here.
The Paju National Training Center (NFC), which was created in preparation for the 2002 World Cup, ended its contract with Paju City, and the facility has been built for a long time, so it costs a lot of renewal construction costs as well as maintenance costs. Every year, maintenance alone cost more than 2 billion won, and it was a time when renewal costs of 10 billion won were needed. On top of that, Paju City demanded about 2 billion won in rent every year. To paraphrase, it was like living in an expensive monthly rent or a rented house and paying a huge repair fee every year. In the case of Paju, it was difficult for youth players, referees, and leaders in the Yeonghonam region to approach it because it was biased to the northwest after passing through the complex metropolitan area. The size of the facility was saturated as our soccer market expanded compared to the time when it was built, and the grass had to be changed. As a result, the association decided to build a new soccer center through a mid- to long-term contract and found a suitable site. After a transparent public offering process involving 24 local governments from all over the country, a new soccer center is being created in Cheonan, located in the center of the country. It was the result of finding the most accessible place to give even opportunities to all footballers across the country.
Next, I will tell you about the budget. When Paju NFC was built, the government provided 45% of the 22 billion won in project expenses excluding land expenses. In addition, Jincheon Training Center, where national athletes in all sports train, was built with a government budget of 510 billion won and receives more than 20 billion won in operating expenses every year. On the other hand, the Cheonan Center received 7.7 billion won from the government out of the 155 billion won construction budget invested by the association, which is 4.9% of the total cost. The remaining expenses that the association has to bear were raised by the association's reserves, including KRW 5.9 billion in surplus from the U-20 World Cup held in Korea in 2017. The short costs were borrowed from banks and were paid back evenly over the next 10 years, so we believe it is not an unreasonable investment in light of the association's financial capabilities. It is difficult for private businesses in any sector to proceed without borrowing from banks when making such large investments for the future. I would appreciate it if you could think of it as a bold investment for the future of Korean soccer. For reference, the soccer association's budget more than tripled from 60 billion won when I headed the association to 187.6 billion won as of 2024.
Finally, I will explain the use of the Cheonan Football Center. If the previous Paju NFC was a facility mainly used by national teams as the name of the National Training Center, the Korea Football Center, which is being built in Cheonan, will literally be an open space used by all soccer players in Korea. Through this, we will make a century of Korean soccer and prepare for the future.
Various youth soccer competitions at home and abroad will be held here, and domestic leaders and referees will also be trained. Cheonan Football Center plans to actively open not only to events under the Korea Football Association but also to youth teams belonging to each professional club in the K League to make it a stepping stone for the development of Korean soccer.
In terms of facilities, it will be a better environment than facilities in advanced soccer countries such as the UK, Spain, and Germany, beyond Asia such as Japan and Qatar. After Sheikh Salman, chairman of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), visited Korea in May and toured the Cheonan Center, Qatar and Saudi Arabia are investing heavily in soccer in West Asia, and Cheonan is the best facility in East Asia, and he promised to hold AFC's referee and leader classes in Cheonan in the future. FIFA President Gianni Infantino, who will visit Korea in October, is also providing $6 million for the construction of the Cheonan Center. This amount is more than the government's subsidies, and FIFA is also actively agreeing and supporting the future vision of our soccer association.
We are proud that the Korea Football Association is steadily building its own long-term projects by establishing an efficient cooperative structure with Cheonan City, a local government, and drawing support from international organizations such as FIFA and AFC. Compared to Jincheon Training Center, which relies almost on the state for enormous construction and operation costs, I think that pure private sports organizations are in the stage of independent project and completion.
If there is a chance in the future, I would like to invite the members of the Culture, Sports and Tourism Committee to the Cheonan site to explain the vision of the Korea Football Center in detail and ask for their opinions and advice.
I would like to thank the Members for reading the long article.
2024. 9. 24
Chung Mong-gyu, president of the Korea Football Association
sky4us@sportschosun.com
