Crisis in South Korean Football: Questions Surround Son Heung-min

The autumn has turned cold for South Korean football. Not just on the pitch, but in parliament, in police stations, and inside the walls of the Korea Football Association.

A dismal World Cup has triggered a chain reaction. Coach Hong Myung-bo has gone. KFA president Chung Mong-gyu has gone. Both men have faced questions from parliamentarians. Police have raided KFA offices. This is no routine post-tournament inquest; it is a full-blown reckoning.

At the centre of it all stands Son Heung-min. Or rather, he used to stand there without question. Now, even his place is being pulled apart.

For years, Son has been the one fixed point in a divided, often directionless national team. The captain, the match-winner, the face of Korean football. The idea that he might not start was once close to sacrilege. You built the team around him and worried about the rest later.

Not anymore. As John Duerden reports, the debate has shifted. The conversation is no longer about how best to support Son, or how to maximise his influence. It is about whether he should start at all.

That is the measure of this crisis. When a nation begins to question its biggest star, it is really questioning everything. The tactical plan. The generation coming through. The authority of the KFA. The direction of the national game.

This is what a World Cup hangover looks like when it turns into something darker: resignations at the top, raids by police, and a once-undroppable icon suddenly having to justify his place.

For South Korea, the next team sheet will say as much about their future as any speech in parliament.