South Korea's early exit from the World Cup has triggered widespread criticism and uncertainty over the future of the national team, with President Lee Jae Myung publicly condemning the team's performance and media reports suggesting that coach Hong Myung-bo has stepped down.
South Korea began its campaign with a victory over the Czech Republic national football team but suffered defeats to the South Africa national football team and the Mexico national football team in their remaining Group A matches.
The team had hoped to progress to the knockout stage as one of the best third-placed teams in the expanded tournament. However, those hopes were dashed after the Congo national football team defeated the Uzbekistan national football team 3-1 on Saturday.
The disappointing campaign prompted a strongly worded response from President Lee, who described the result as both surprising and deeply troubling.
In a lengthy statement, the president criticised the structure and management of the national team and questioned the decision to appoint Hong as coach.
"Once again, it has been proven that personnel decisions determine everything. If loyalty and factionalism are valued over competence and an incapable person is appointed as a leader, the outcome is predictable," Lee said.
Hong, 57, was serving his second stint as South Korea's head coach. He also led the team at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, where South Korea similarly failed to advance beyond the group stage.
South Korea are one of Asia's most consistent World Cup participants, having qualified for 11 consecutive tournaments since 1986. Their best performance came in 2002 when they reached the semifinals as co-hosts of the tournament.
President Lee also called on the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism to review the national team's failures and reform the country's sports administration.
"I sincerely apologise to the public for the deep disappointment caused by this situation. We will move swiftly to reform sports administration to ensure this does not happen again," he said.