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A controversial football commentator on Tuesday slammed the Korean Football Association for a ¡°strategic mistake¡± in hastily appointing Pim Verbeek as new manager of the Korean national football team. ¡°Appointing a new manager was an issue that should have been determined by taking enough time for discussions and reviews,¡± Shin Moon-sun said on CBS radio. He warned that deciding who will lead Team Korea even before the World Cup was over ¡°will turn off many soccer fans from the nation¡¯s football league, despite the World Cup being a very good opportunity to promote the league.¡±
Shin said K-League games now have practically no spectators. ¡°Professional soccer players are playing one another in an empty stadium with no one to cheer them, despite our first-ever overseas victory in the World Cup and the very good performance by Team Korea in their match against Switzerland.¡± The pundit diagnosed two mistakes. ¡°One is to blame the failure to advance into the final 16 on bad calls by referees, and the other to appoint Pim Verbeek as new manager¡± in haste, he said.
Shin reiterated inflammatory remarks that cost him his job late last month, saying a controversial off-side decision in Korea¡¯s game against Switzerland in the World Cup should not have been played up. ¡°Korean Football Association president Chung Mong-Joon told the public he would protest against bad calls by referees over the off-side issue to FIFA, and it infuriated people and poured oil on the flames by not offering accurate information on the off-side rule to the people who didn¡¯t know enough about it.¡±
Shin was branded a traitor by some when he sided with the referee over his decision to overrule a line judge who signaled Swiss forward Alexander Frei was off-side in Switzerland¡¯s game with Korea on June 24. Frei scored a second goal for his team in the 32nd minute of the second half. Such was the outcry over Shin¡¯s remark that SBS, where he was meant to work until July 10, sent him home on June 28.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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