South Korea Soccer Team Suffers 4 AM Angry Mob Airport Ambush After World Cup Loss

Eight players on the South Korean national soccer team and their former coach, Hong Myung-bo, attempted to sneak back into the country in the early morning hours of Tuesday after a disappointing loss at the FIFA World Cup last week but were met by dozens of angry fans holding up protest signs and demanding Hong return his salary.

Despite arriving at Incheon International Airport from North America between 3 a.m. and 4 a.m. local time – rumored to have been a decision to discourage mob violence after Hong received death threats online this week – the team failed to avoid being greeted with jeers and boos.

Several reports in South Korean media detailed that someone in the angry mob threw a dog’s dental chew at the head of the Korean Football Association (KFA), Chung Mong-gyu, who also arrived on the flight at that time.

South Korean soccer fans are livid at the team’s failure to make it out of the group phase of the World Cup and into the knockout rounds, where the tournament becomes based on brackets and a loss automatically disqualifies a team. Prior to the tournament beginning, sports analysts predicted that South Korea was one of the stronger teams in its group, given the presence of players with experience playing in European soccer clubs, and would easily emerge out of the group phase.

Hong has attracted the most criticism; the angry fans outside the airport reportedly took the time to shout “keep your head up!” at the players as they passed before returning to boos and jeers for the coach. Hong was chosen to manage the national team amid a firestorm of controversy in 2024 that prompted a congressional investigation. The president of South Korea, Lee Jae-myung, referred to Hong as “incompetent” in a social media post this weekend and promised the country’s Ministry of Sports would investigation how he was hired over rumored foreign coaches with more impressive experience.

At Incheon on Tuesday morning, South Korean authorities deployed over 160 riot police officers in anticipation of the team’s arrival. Hong arrived with players Jo Hyeon-woo, Kim Min-jae, Hwang In-beom, Hwang Hee-chan, Paik Seung-ho, Kim Moon-hwan, Lee Kang-in, and Seol Young-woo, as well as the KFA president, according to South Korea’s JoongAng Daily. The newspaper estimated that a crowd of “about 50 to 60” fans assembled to insult them, though some reports suggested as many as 100 people had gathered for the occasion.

Videos from the scene show men holding a megaphone and chanting “Hong Myung-bo, get out of Korea!” “Hong Myung-bo, you should be ashamed!” and other insults. One held up a sign lamenting, “Korean football is dead!” Some demanded that Hong return his salary for leading the team, which was reported to be in the millions of won.

“The poor results are one thing, but I think the people need an explanation for the poor results,” one fan told the Agence France-Presse (AFP). “It is regrettable that this responsibility was only addressed with a single resignation.”

Hong appeared to pass through the area with the angry mob as quickly as possible. Some videos showed the players holding their heads down or not facing the crowd. One exception was Lee Kang-in, who plays for the champion European soccer club Paris Saint-Germain, who appeared to stare painfully at the assembly.

South Korea competed at the World Cup against Mexico, South Africa, and Czechia, none of whom have ever won the tournament. The team defeated Czechia but lost to the other two teams, making it impossible for them to advance. The outsized outrage against Hong is partially due to the fact that South Korea’s national team also failed to make it out of the group stage in 2014, the last time that he coached the team, and he is the only coach in the country’s history to be given a second chance. His selection in 2024 was highly controversial, as he was rumored to have been competing with more accomplished foreign candidates, but many fans complained that the KFA chose him out of favoritism and potential corruption. National Assembly investigations into his hiring resulted in no significant action.

President Lee Jae-myung personally apologized to the Korean public on Sunday, describing “utter bewilderment” at the team’s failure and ordering the government to act.

“When you put an incompetent person in charge by prioritizing any personal connections over their abilities, then it’s easy to predict how things will play out,” Lee wrote in a social media post. “Such a nonsensical personnel decision that puts personal interests ahead of the common good only happens because it’s impossible, or at least difficult, to keep the person responsible for these decisions in check.”

“Since participating in a World Cup requires a lot of taxpayers’ money and other national resources, I would like to ask the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism to identify and analyze the cause of the problem and prepare measures to prevent recurrences,” the president added.

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