The South Korean football governing body said Tuesday it may take legal steps against former national team player Park Joo-ho over violating the terms of a non-disclosure agreement, after Park took to YouTube to lash out at the federation’s handling of the men’s national team coach hiring process.

Park has been serving on the National Teams Committee at the Korea Football Association (KFA) since February. The former midfielder worked with other former or active players and coaches in trying to fill the coaching vacancy at the men’s national team, after the KFA fired Jurgen Klinsmann earlier that month at the Asian Football Confederation Asian Cup.

After nearly five months of contacting and interviewing international candidates, the KFA named South Korean tactician Hong Myung-bo as the new head coach on Sunday. The KFA faced a backlash after plucking Hong off his current K League 1 club, Ulsan HD FC, in the middle of their season. The KFA has also not offered definitive answers on how Hong, who had earlier
rejected the KFA’s job offers, had a sudden change of heart over the weekend.

As head of the National Teams Committee, longtime coach Chung Hae-sung had been in charge of the hiring process since February. But he abruptly resigned at the end of June, and that forced KFA’s technical director, Lee Lim-saeng, to take on the responsibilities.

The KFA was believed to have been leaning toward naming a foreign coach, and Lee traveled to Europe last week to interview a couple of former Premier League coaches there — Gus Poyet and David Wagner.

In a clip uploaded to his YouTube channel late Monday, Park claimed the committee was in shambles from the get-go.

“Some members blindly supported South Korean candidates, and they only nitpicked foreign candidates when their names came up,” Park claimed, “For the most part, people wanted to hire Hong Myung-bo.”

Park even said he didn’t even know Hong had been appointed until the KFA sent out a text message notice to the media Sunday afternoon.

“The past five months have
all been for naught. I often thought this committee wasn’t even necessary,” Park said. “Nothing was done properly.”

A KFA official charged that Park, by discussing the inner workings of the committee on YouTube, had breached the non-disclosure agreement he’d signed in February.

In a statement, the KFA said Park only made baseless arguments.

“We express deep regrets and concerns that Park Joo-ho has caused so much misunderstanding among the media and the public by distorting facts related to the hiring process using his own, arbitrary perspective,” the statement read. “As a member of the committee, he may feel disappointed that the result didn’t turn out the way he had hoped. But it is inappropriate for him to argue that the committee didn’t stick to the proper process just because things didn’t play out in his favor.”

According to the KFA, Park was present in a meeting by the committee when Hong emerged as the front-runner, having earned the most support from its members.

The KFA also said Park had been
informed that Lee, the technical director, would have the final say in appointing the head coach and Park had even agreed to the process.

The KFA said Park owes other committee members an apology and an explanation for his action.

The YouTube clip had 2 million views as of 10 p.m. Tuesday

Source: Yonhap News Agency