Reports of discord within South Korea's men's national soccer team have reached the National Assembly.
Rep. Chung Yeon-wook of the People Power Party raised the recent reports of friction and leadership problems within the national team at an Oct. 21 parliamentary audit held by the National Assembly's Culture, Sports and Tourism Committee, criticizing the Korea Football Association for standing by.
Chung asked Lee Yong-soo, vice president and acting president of the association, who appeared as a witness: "I hear that national team players refer to Son Heung-min (LAFC), the captain, as 'No. 7' or 'that person' rather than by name. Were you aware of this?" He added, "It raises a number of questions about whether teamwork among the players has become so strained that they are uncomfortable even saying his name."
He then presented video of interviews given by defender Kim Min-jae (Bayern Munich) and midfielder Hwang In-beom (Porto) after the national team's recent friendly against Venezuela. Kim pointed to insufficient defensive effort from the attacking players, while Hwang made remarks suggesting problems with leadership within the team.
Chung also referred to the controversy that followed the team's most recent A-match against Uzbekistan, when Kim Min-jae, Hwang In-beom and Hwang Hee-chan (Schalke 04) — all born in 1996 — were reported to have considered quitting the national team.
Lee said he had "received only a brief report, because this is an internal matter for the national team," adding that "we agreed to continue discussing it internally, on the principle that what happens in the locker room is resolved in the locker room."
Chung said the public has "fundamental doubts about whether the association can show any skill in managing the national team, why the team keeps running into this kind of noise and conflict, and whether any manager who comes in can repair a situation in which the team's leadership has collapsed," faulting the association for allowing the controversy and suspicions to grow through its hands-off approach.
Lee said he hoped the team "will come together a little more and improve step by step as it prepares for the November A-matches and the Asian Cup, which opens in January next year, under interim manager Robert Moreno."