South Korea, World Cup semifinalists as cohosts in 2002, limped out of the tournament after failing to squeeze into the knockout rounds as one of the top eight third-place finishers.<\/p>\n
They had the last 32<\/a> within their reach only to suffer a shock 1-0 loss<\/a> to lower-ranked South Africa.<\/p>\n Their early exit prompted coach Hong to quit on Sunday and cast doubt over the international future of captain Son Heung-min<\/a>.<\/p>\n It also earned the team a rebuke from the country\u2019s president, Lee Jae Myung, who pointed the finger at \u201cincompetent people\u201d and apologised to the nation.<\/p>\n The president\u2019s comments reflect public anger that has reached a boiling point after years of simmering discontent with South Korean football chiefs.<\/p>\n Former captain Park Ji-sung said, \u201cWe may have expected this outcome years ago.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have to look back and ask ourselves why things have come to this,\u201d the former Manchester United player said after the team\u2019s elimination was confirmed.<\/p>\n \u201cEven after spending a decade learning how to prepare for the World Cup and develop Korean football, we have forgotten those lessons once again.\u201d<\/p>\n South Korea was expected to emerge from Group A that included cohosts Mexico, South Africa and Czechia.<\/p>\n They started with a 2-1 win over the Czechs<\/a> but lost 1-0 to Mexico<\/a> before bowing out against South Africa.<\/p>\n The team were expected to arrive home on Tuesday morning, but local media reported that the Korea Football Association (KFA) were not planning to organise an event to welcome them back.<\/p>\n In 2014, angry fans pelted the team with Korean candies \u2013 seen as a deeply offensive insult \u2013 when they returned from the World Cup in Brazil, where they went out in the group stage during Hong\u2019s first spell as coach.<\/p>\n Hong has been a lightning rod for criticism since he returned to the job in July 2024, five months after his predecessor, German World Cup-winner Jurgen Klinsmann, was axed.<\/p>\n The KFA came under fire for the process that led to Hong\u2019s reappointment, with questions asked over its transparency and fairness.<\/p>\n Hong, who was regularly booed by fans, did himself no favours at the World Cup by dropping star player Son for the South Africa game, in which South Korea needed only a point to progress.<\/p>\n Hong admitted afterwards that he was struggling to understand what had gone wrong, as the nation nervously waited for results in other games to decide their fate.<\/p>\n Lee Chun-soo, a member of the 2002 World Cup team, said he \u201cfelt pathetic and frustrated rooting for Uzbekistan\u201d against the Democratic Republic of the Congo in the hope that the result would send South Korea through.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a message to change,\u201d Lee said on his YouTube channel. \u201cEveryone should be ready to step down.\u201d<\/p>\n South Korean fans reserved a sizeable chunk of their anger for KFA President Chung Mong-gyu.<\/p>\n Chung said before the World Cup that he would quit after the tournament, blaming his \u201clack of virtue\u201d following fierce criticism of his 13-year tenure.<\/p>\n The 65-year-old, who is in his fourth term as KFA president, came under fire for trying to pardon former players who were banned for life for match-fixing.<\/p>\n Chung and Hong might not be the only ones to bow out, with captain Son yet to comment on his future.<\/p>\n The skipper, who turns 34 next month, had previously hinted at retiring from international football.<\/p>\n Former captain Park said South Korea needed to learn from the past.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s unfortunate that this kind of cycle keeps repeating,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe must dream of and shape a better future, and move forward step by step so that we don\u2019t repeat these mistakes.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Published On 29 Jun 202629 Jun 2026 South Korea\u2019s dismal World Cup first-round exit has prompted fury at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":664135,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1296,218,49,50,11998,217,51,47,52,48,58033],"class_list":["post-664134","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-asia-pacific","tag-football","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-south-korea","tag-sport","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-world-cup-2026"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/664134","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=664134"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/664134\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/664135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=664134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=664134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=664134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"South](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/AFP__20260625__B8948G4__v1__HighRes__SkoreaFblWc2026Fans-1782713618.jpg\")
South Korean fans at the Gwanghwamun Square in Seoul react after their team lost against South Africa [Jade Gao\/AFP]<\/p>\n![\"South](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/AFP__20260625__B8CV7JA__v1__HighRes__FblWc2026PresserKor-1782713776.jpg\")
South Korea\u2019s head coach Hong Myung-bo stepped down after the team failed to reach the World Cup 2026 knockouts [Ulises Ruiz\/AFP]\u2018Message to change\u2019<\/p>\n![\"Soccer](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/2026-06-25T014453Z_2027284847_UP1EM6P04URF7_RTRMADP_3_SOCCER-WORLDCUP-ZAF-KOR-1782714104.jpg\")
Son Heung-min was benched against South Africa, a game South Korea went on to lose and ultimately exit from the World Cup [Eloisa Sanchez\/Reuters]<\/p>\n