Chung Jeong-sung, the head of the Korea Football Association’s national power enhancement committee who was leading the search for a national soccer team manager, has abruptly resigned, throwing a wrench into the search for the next national team coach, which is said to be nearing its conclusion.

According to soccer circles, Chung visited the Jongno Football Hall in Seoul’s Jongno-gu district on Monday and verbally informed KFA officials of his intention to step down.

If his resignation is accepted, 토토사이트 순위 Chung will leave the post after four months.

Chung, who served as the head of the KFA’s competition committee, was appointed to replace Michael Muller (Germany) as the new chairman of the committee following the sacking of former national team coach Jürgen Klinsmann in February and has been leading the process of selecting a new coach.

After the controversial and ultimately unsuccessful appointment of Klinsmann, which led to skepticism about the role of the committee, the new committee under Chung got off to a promising start, but the search for a new coach is still ongoing.

The committee has been in contact with coaches Jesse Marsh (Canada) and Jesús Casas (Iraq), but has been unsuccessful.

The news of Sa’s resignation came as a surprise after several meetings of the power strengthening committee were held after this month’s A-Match to narrow down the list of 10 candidates, with Chung reportedly holding video interviews with foreign candidates since the beginning of the week to find a final negotiating partner.

Some analysts believe that there was a conflict between Chung and the association’s senior officials over the direction of the selection process, which may have contributed to his decision to resign.

The absence of the chairman could disrupt the process of selecting a head coach, which has already taken more than four months since Klinsmann’s firing.

The key will be how quickly the other members of the committee can move forward with discussions on the shortlisted candidates.

While the search for a new coach took time, the national team breezed through four matches of the second round of qualifying for the 2026 North American Championship under interim coaches Hwang Sun-hong and Kim Do-hoon during the March and June A-Match periods, respectively, and qualified for the third round by topping their group.

The third and de facto final round of qualifying begins in September, and South Korea were drawn into Group B alongside Iraq, Jordan, Oman, Palestine and Kuwait in the third round draw on Sunday.

The third qualifying round, which will see 18 nations divided into three groups, will determine six of the 8.5 tickets to the knockout stage. The 1-2 finishers in each group will earn a direct ticket to North and Central America, while the six third- and fourth-place finishers will move on to the fourth qualifier, where they will fight for two tickets.