When South Korea failed to make the knockout stages in the soccer World Cup, the country¡¯s president, Lee Jae Myung, denounced the national team head coach, a South Korean citizen. ¡°This is the result of failures in organization and personnel management; if you appoint an incompetent person as a leader, the outcome is obvious.¡±
It reminded me of a horrific incident from three decades ago, after the 1994 World Cup, when a Colombian player ¡ª whose team lost early in the tournament ¡ª was shot and killed by alleged drug traffickers after returning home. I never dreamed, however, that the head of state in South Korea would openly criticize the head coach and its soccer association so harshly.
Public opinion in South Korea also boiled over, leading to the resignation of the coach and the president of the Korea Football Association.
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