South Korean FA official recommends firing manager Jurgen Klinsmann

An advisory committee of the Korean Football Association (KFA) on Thursday recommended that the governing body fire Jurgen Klinsmann as the manager of the South Korean national team, according to Reuters.

"For various reasons, there was a conclusion that coach Klinsmann can no longer exercise leadership as the national team's coach and needs to be replaced," KFA's technical director Hwang Bo-Kwan said at Thursday's meeting via video call, which Klinsmann attended as well.

Klinsmann took over the team in 2023 on a contract until the FIFA World Cup in 2026. If the KFA fires him, it has to be the decision made by the Executive Board instead of the National Team Committee.

Klinsmann's tenure began with criticism as South Korea failed to win any of their first five games under him. Things took a better turn for him before this year's Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Asian Cup in Qatar as the team secured six straight wins.

South Korea finished the Asian Cup in the semifinals where they were knocked out by Jordan. The result was better than their performance of losing in the quarterfinals five years ago in the United Arab Emirates, but as a traditional Asian football powerhouse, South Korea didn't have even one shot on the target against Jordan.

Klinsmann was also criticized for not spending enough time in South Korea as he often worked from Los Angeles, California. Hwang considered this as "disrespectful" towards the public.

There were reports this week that South Korea suffered an internal brawl between their ace striker Son Heung-min and Lee Kang-in before the loss to Jordan. Son injured his finger in the fight at dinner the night before the game.

"It happened when some young players went up to play table tennis, and Son Heung-min and other older players took issue with it," according to Yonhap that quoted a KFA official. "The players exchanged a few words and Son hurt his finger in the process"