The Korean Soccer Association abandons its contract with Bruno Metsu

The Korean Soccer Association (KSA)’s attempt to make a contract with Bruno Metsu, the current head coach of the UAE soccer club Al-Ain, has come to an end. Metsu was given the top preference among candidates to be the next head coach of the Korean national soccer team.

On June 4, KSA announced, “We offered an annual salary equivalent to what we paid Guus Hiddink ($1,000,000 with options), but Bruno Metsu wants far more. We decided this to be our final proposal, whether he accepts it or not.” KSA plans to go into a technical committee on June 7 to discuss countermeasures in the event that he doesn’t accept KSA’s offer by June 6.

--Reasons for failure?

KSA gave up Bruno Metsu mainly because of his ‘salary gap’. The fact that he had appeared double-faced during the negotiations in regards to his relations with the club he currently belongs to also affected KSA’s final decision.

Bruno Metsu expected his salary to be more than $1,700,000, which is what the Qatar soccer club Al-Itihad had offered him. It appeared he acted double-faced when he spoke of his intentions to take the head coach position of the Korean national soccer team and then went to Qatar to begin negotiations with Al-Itihad.

KSA’s Director of International Affairs Ga Sam-hyun, who is responsible for negotiations with Bruno Metsu, said, “KSA will lead this negotiation, and will not be led by Bruno Metsu any longer. We drew a line.” KSA made this decision because it worried about failing to contract other candidates as well as losing its international reliance if it hung on to Bruno Metsu.

--What next?

It is not clear whether KSA will pick one of three other candidates or return to its starting point. The vice chairman of KSA’s technical committee Huh Jeong-moo implied that they have an alternative plan of picking among Luiz Felipe Scolari, head coach of the Portugal national soccer team, Michael McCarthy, head coach of the English soccer club, Sunderland, and Senol Gunes, ex-head coach of the Turkey national soccer team.

However, it is also possible that KSA will make a new start. Some say that a Korean head coach could be better than a foreign one.

Vice chairman Huh said, “There were lots of problems because we opened the process of selecting candidates to the public. Therefore, all the process will be behind closed doors from now on.”

Sang-Ho Kim Jong-Koo Yang hyangsan@donga.com yjongk@donga.com