Technical director for the Korea Football Association (KFA) Lee Lim-saeng speaks during a joint press conference in Jongno District, Seoul, July 8. Yonhap

The senior Korean football official responsible for hiring the men's national team head coach insisted Monday he was assured of complete autonomy during what he claimed was a transparent process.

Lee Lim-saeng, technical director for the Korea Football Association (KFA), held a press conference Monday to discuss the appointment of Hong Myung-bo as the new bench boss for the senior men's national team.

Lee was thrust into the lead role in the hiring process after Chung Hae-sung abruptly resigned as head of the KFA's National Teams Committee on June 28.

A few other members of Chung's committee also quit amid speculation that Chung had clashed with the KFA's upper management, namely its president, Chung Mong-gyu, over their choice of candidates.

Chung Hae-sung was believed to have pushed for a Korean coach, while Chung Mong-gyu — no relations — apparently wanted a foreign national. And after the former stepped down, the KFA ended up hiring a Korean national in Hong, who has been head coach of the K League 1 club Ulsan HD FC since 2021.

Last year, Chung Mong-gyu was accused of disregarding the proper vetting process and using his authority to hire Jurgen Klinsmann as the men's national team head coach. That move backfired in February this year when Klinsmann failed to take Korea to the top of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Asian Cup and was fired as a result.

Rejecting speculation that Chung had once again wielded his influence, Lee said the KFA boss was not involved at all.

"Once we narrowed down the list of candidates to three, I told President Chung Mong-gyu that I wanted to go meet all three," Lee said. "And he told me one thing. He said, 'You're the technical director of the KFA. From now on, you should be making all the decisions.' In fact, after I settled on Hong Myung-bo as the head coach, I didn't even report that to the president. He gave me all the power to do the work, and I followed a transparent process to make this decision on my own. I don't agree with the notion that something suspicious was going on."

Lee said the KFA followed proper steps before putting him in charge of screening and interviewing coaching candidates after Chung Hae-sung's resignation. With four National Teams Committee members dropping out, Lee said he had asked for and received approval from the remaining five members to go ahead with the process.

Technical director for the Korea Football Association (KFA) Lee Lim-saeng drinks water during a joint press conference in Jongno District, Seoul, July 8. Yonhap

Lee added that the five members also endorsed his choice of Hong as the new head coach, though it took an unusual process.

"After I'd decided on Hong, I could have convened a meeting with the committee members. But I was afraid it would leak to the media," Lee said. "So I contacted the five members individually, and they all supported my decision."

Lee said he had received confirmation from the KFA's legal affairs department that there wouldn't be any issues with the way he had finalized Hong's hiring.

"It's not for me to say whether it was right or wrong for me to gain support from only those five members of the committee," Lee said. "I had the green light from our legal team."

Lee went out of his way to offer a detailed timeline of the process.

The position became open on Feb. 16, but Korea faced a time crunch ahead of two World Cup qualifying matches in March. They played them under caretaker manager Hwang Sun-hong.

Then the KFA hoped to find a full-time replacement for Klinsmann by mid-May at the latest, but talks with two leading candidates fell through over money, among other issues. It forced the KFA to go with another caretaker boss, this time Kim Do-hoon, for two more World Cup qualifying matches in June.

The KFA went back to the drawing board and had 97 candidates on hand, before narrowing them down to 38 by May 20.

The list was whittled down to 12 on June 3, but Lee said five more names were added in the next meeting on June 18.

The newly named head coach of the Korean men's national football team Hong Myung-bo speaks during a joint press conference in Nam District, Ulsan, Jan. 16, 2023. Yonhap

By the time Chung had resigned, five candidates remained, with Hong being the lone Korean. One foreign candidate was dropped after an interview, while the KFA failed to find time for an interview with another. That left Hong and two other foreign candidates, believed to be former Greece head coach Gus Poyet and ex-Norwich City head coach David Wagner.

Lee said he interviewed one candidate in Madrid last Wednesday and met the other in Frankfurt the following day. He landed back in South Korea on Friday afternoon and met with Hong near his home at 11 p.m. that same night.

Hong called Lee at 9 a.m. Saturday to inform the official that he would take the coaching job. Lee then reached out to Ulsan's management for their support and cooperation in releasing Hong in the middle of their K League season.

The Lee-Hong meeting took place hours after Ulsan's K League 1 match. In a pregame media availability, Hong had said he wasn't planning on meeting Lee, and he hadn't heard anything from any KFA official. Left unanswered Monday was how Hong, who had been critical of the KFA's inability to find the new coach and had rejected media speculation of his hiring on multiple occasions, had such a quick change of heart.

"With coach Hong, I made several pleas that he should dedicate himself to the development of South Korean football," Lee said. "He had the strongest support from our committee of the three finalists."

Lee denied rumors that the KFA had contacted Hong beforehand, and Friday's meeting between Lee and Hong was a mere formality.

"I met him for the first time after my trip to Europe," Lee said. "Before that, I was not in a position to get in touch with him, nor was it a proper time to meet him. And I was worried if he would even agree to meet me."

Asked if the financial terms of the deal made it tough for Hong to refuse the offer, Lee said: "Though I can't reveal the exact figures, I can tell you that I believe Korean coaches should be paid as well as foreign coaches. And I specifically asked the KFA for equal pay."

In an apparent sign that the past several days of going through candidates had worn him out, Lee choked back tears and barely maintained his composure in some moments later in the press conference.

"People may blame me for being ignorant. But I've made this decision based on which coach could successfully lead our national team without drastic changes," Lee said. "And if people find problems with that, then I will absolutely accept that criticism. But I don't want to have regrets about the decision I've made." (Yonhap)