Police Raid KFA Amid Criminal Probe into Hong Myung-bo Appointment
South Korean football’s summer of disappointment has taken a sharp, dramatic turn off the pitch, with police raiding the Korea Football Association (KFA) headquarters as part of a criminal investigation into the hiring of former national team coach Hong Myung-bo.
On Thursday, officers from Seoul’s financial crimes unit carried out “search and seizure operations” at the KFA offices, targeting documents and records linked to Hong’s appointment. Authorities are probing potential “obstruction of business” in the recruitment process, a police spokesman confirmed.
The move drags the country’s governing body deeper into crisis after a miserable World Cup campaign in the United States, Mexico and Canada. South Korea failed to escape the group stage of the expanded 48-team tournament, their run ending in a shock 1-0 defeat to South Africa.
Hong, 57, resigned in June in the immediate aftermath of that early exit, but the questions did not leave with him. They have only multiplied.
His 2024 appointment had already raised eyebrows inside and outside Korean football circles. Critics pointed to opaque decision-making and internal disquiet long before a ball was kicked at the World Cup. Once South Korea crashed out before the last-32 knockout phase, the scrutiny hardened into suspicion.
Police now want to know how far that suspicion goes.
According to Seoul authorities, investigators are examining whether senior KFA officials improperly influenced the process that brought Hong back to the national team job, potentially breaching the association’s own internal rules. Local media reports say the focus lies on whether powerful figures inside the KFA intervened to steer the selection in his favour, bypassing established procedures.
For a federation already under fire for its handling of the national side, the sight of officers combing through its headquarters marks a new low. What began as a sporting inquest into tactics and team selection has become a legal examination of power, process and governance at the very top of South Korean football.
The World Cup failure cost Hong his position. The fallout from how he got that position may yet cost others far more.
