By Cho Mu-hyun
The ousted former national team manager Cho Kwang-rae said Monday that the Korea Football Association (KFA) pressured him in picking players ahead of last month's World Cup qualifying games against Kuwait and Lebanon.
"There is no future for Korean football if the national team manger is susceptible to outside pressure,"said Cho, in a meeting in Seoul with several reporters. "It's an embarrassing reality of Korean football, but there definitely was pressure (in selecting players)."
He claimed that three officials-without naming them-within the KFA leadership recommended a player ahead of the games. Cho asserted that while the officials can recommend players, all three "coincidentally" named the same player.
The 57-year-old said he discussed the matter with his coaching staff, and ultimately did not accept the recommended player, after which the relationship between him and the KFA became rocky.
Former technical committee Chairman Lee Hoi-taek, Hwangbo Kwan's predecessor, immediately refuted Cho's claims, saying the former national team manager had asked for their advice.
Cho's allegations are the latest in the barbed exchange between him and the nation's governing football body.
Cho was sacked Dec. 7 following Korea's dismal performance in the game against Lebanon, the third qualifying round for the Brazil World Cup.
While he accepted the dismissal, he cited problems with how the KFA's technical committee arrived at the decision to fire him.
Against heavy criticism concerning Cho's outster, the technical committee soon named Choi Kang-hee, the erstwhile manager of Jeonbuk Motors, as Cho's replacement.
Meanwhile, KFA President Cho Joong-yun made a comment relating to the technical committee in a different press meeting, which may possibly affect its future.
"After the 2002 World Cup, Japanese football's president personally chose new manager (Coimbra) Zico without discussions with a technical committee," he said. "This is just my personal opinion, but technical committee need to focus on technical analysis."