New-look committee to meet over head coach

The new-look technical committee at the Korea Football Association will hold its inaugural meeting to go over candidates for the coaching vacancy on the men’s senior national team, officials said.

The KFA named Lee Yong-soo, a popular television analyst and a university professor, as its new technical director last Thursday.

At his inaugural press conference on Monday, Lee announced seven new members of his technical committee, vowing to take steps to help improve South Korean football. This will be Lee’s second tour of duty as the technical chief: he’d previously served in the role during the 2002 FIFA World Cup, when South Korea, a cohost with Japan, reached the semifinals.

A more pressing matter at hand, though, is to nominate the new head coach for the men’s national team, the chief responsibility of the committee. Former head coach Hong Myung-bo resigned three weeks ago to take the blame for South Korea’s winless exit from the FIFA World Cup in Brazil in June. Hwangbo Kwan, then head of the technical committee, also resigned in the wake of the disastrous World Cup.

Lee and the seven new members have little time to waste. South Korea has scheduled a friendly match against Venezuela on Sept. 5 and against Uruguay three days later in preparation for January’s Asian Cup in Australia, the next major international competition.

An official with the KFA said the committee will meet at the National Football Center in Paju, just north of Seoul.

“The most urgent issue for the new committee is to nominate the national team head coach,” the official said.

“To make sure they won’t feel pressed for time, they will talk things over for two days.”

The KFA said Lee will meet the press at 11 a.m. on Thursday at the NFC to brief journalists on the committee’s session.

On Monday, Lee revealed that he would be working with a pool of about 15 South Korean and 15 international candidates for the coaching position.

Lee said he will take his time to find the right person for the job. He added having an interim coach for the two September matches is a possibility and said he hopes Hong’s replacement will at least be in the stands to watch one of the two games. (Yonhap)