South Korea fans petition to sack Hong Myung-bo after World Cup group-stage collapse

South Korea are in serious danger of a World Cup group-stage exit after losing 1-0 to South Africa, a result that has prompted a wave of public fury directed at head coach Hong Myung-bo and triggered a formal petition calling for his immediate sacking.

The Koreans opened the tournament with a victory over the Czech Republic but back-to-back defeats to hosts Mexico and South Africa left them with three points and third place in their group. They remain alive only through the third-place qualification route, sitting sixth in that standings at the time of writing — a precarious position that requires multiple results to break in their favour.

A petition submitted to South Korea’s National Assembly has already cleared the 100-endorsement threshold required for an initial review, with lawmakers now considering whether to make it public. Should it go public and gather more than 50,000 signatures within 30 days, it would be referred to a national standing committee. The document pulls no punches in its assessment of both the coach and the governing body.

“The Korea Football Association’s official selection process was effectively ignored, making it difficult to avoid criticism that the appointment was fundamentally illegitimate,” the petition states. “Despite fielding what many considered the strongest squad in Korea’s World Cup history, the team finished with one win and two losses, placing third in the group. The performance against South Africa was so lifeless that it could be regarded as one of the worst displays by a Korean team in World Cup history.”

The petition goes beyond a simple demand for Myung-bo’s removal. It calls for structural reform of the Korea Football Association, specifically urging the National Assembly to exercise greater budgetary oversight of the organisation. “The arbitrary appointment of a head coach by a particular individual while bypassing official bodies such as the National Team Strengthening Committee must be strictly prohibited,” it reads.

Myung-bo, for his part, pointed to mental and environmental factors after the South Africa defeat. “The players seemed to carry a significant psychological burden to secure a win,” he said. “The poor performance was likely due to a combination of psychological factors and environmental challenges like the extreme heat.”

That explanation is unlikely to satisfy a fan base that arrived at this World Cup with genuine expectations of a deep run, only to watch their side produce what the petition describes as one of the most dispiriting performances in the nation’s tournament history.