Korean Football.. Has it ever been this disastrous and shameful?

‌It is truly beyond pathetic. How did Korean football end up in this state, in this condition?
Along with hosting the 2002 Korea-Japan World Cup, South Korean football achieved the myth of reaching the semi-finals of the World Cup for the first time by an Asian nation. It was the hope and pride of the Korean people who overcame the difficult 20th century to welcome the new era of the 21st century; furthermore, it was a moment akin to a myth of human triumph.
At that time, South Korea was a country that most of the world did not know well due to its long period as a developing nation.
In other words, the 2000s were a time when the nation poured all its strength into promoting South Korea to the world through exports, arts, and sports, aiming to advertise the country to the entire global village.
And the beginning of that was the 2002 Korea-Japan World Cup.
Even during the '88 Olympics, such a culture and memory did not exist.
It wasn't just about watching football broadcasts alone at home; the World Cup was what united the entire nation through the single spirit of cheering for South Korea, where anyone who went out to the streets could connect with others, naturally putting arms around each other's shoulders.
The protagonists of the Hiddink era, who received such support from the people, became names remembered by everyone who recalls that era—even those who are not football fans—as if they were great figures, and went on to become unforgettable names.
Yet, for Korean football... how is it that more than 20 years later, it has regressed even further than back then, and even the public sentiment of the Korean people has become extremely hostile?
Honestly, let's think about it.
This World Cup was a situation where most people didn't even realize a World Cup was happening, and questions like "Why is there no World Cup atmosphere?" were being asked, even leading to controversies over broadcasting rights. The sight of the Korean people uniting as one through the sport of football from 20 years ago has vanished, and it ultimately ended with nothing but numerous controversies alongside the worst performance that surpassed the Brazil World Cup.
Even after that, massive controversies have been bursting out one after another behind the scenes of Korean football, and the current situation is nothing more than an extension of this.
The South Korean national football team was the vanguard representing South Korea and held the highest status among all South Korean national sports teams.
But now, their public sentiment is heading toward the bottom of the abyss.
What on earth was the problem?
No matter how different their respective club teams might be, national team players in other sports, including ball games, considered the mere act of wearing the Taegeuk mark an honor. They approached national matches with a humble attitude, helping and considering one another to avoid causing any noise.
So why is it only football that triggers such controversies?
Starting with the controversy over the Asian Games gold medal, these controversies have been constant even among A-match national team players. If football, which holds the highest status as a national team, is in this state, Korean people will never cheer for football again in the future.
No, perhaps it is already heading that way in the present.
The romance of the Korea-Japan World Cup will remain merely as a memory of a brief, brilliant, and almost crazed era, and the beauty that Korean football once showed will come to a complete end after that.
Korean football, and the World Cup—the A-match national team competition—was a sport that received immense privileges within South Korea due to its popularity, influence, and status compared to other sports.
Simply because it was the World Cup, various companies ran event advertisements aiming for the "World Cup special," and media outlets did everything to boost the World Cup atmosphere, organizing cheering squads and releasing official anthems. This went beyond mere envy among those in the sports industry; it was such an immense privilege that it even robbed the talent pool of prospects.
And these privileges led to arrogance and conceit.
The claim that the goal was military exemption rather than a gold medal follows the same logic.
How can it be treated as a daily occurrence that a fellow athlete mocks the sport of baseball as mere "leisure"? And they bragged about insulting not only baseball but also players of board games or brain sports like billiards, Go, and chess.
If football, which receives such massive national privileges that it even operates citizen clubs among the four major professional ball sports, acts this way, football will forever be "a league of their own," a sport for themselves, becoming permanently alienated from South Korean society, with a continuous decline in spectators and a lack of proper advertising.
The idea of naturally talking about football over a cup of coffee in daily life, as seen in Europe, will become something completely distant from our country.
Furthermore, a terrible image and perception will be cast upon football as a whole and even upon individual players, leading to an era where no one loves or cheers for football.
Since it has become widely known that the image of football as a sport is of poor quality, parents who wish to raise elite athletes will never let their children play football. This will lead to a thinning youth pool, which in the long run will contribute to the rapid decline of the skills of the Korean national football team.
There have been countless cases outside of football where the incompetence of an association led to a thinning pool and the eventual decline and sinking of an entire sport, and there is no guarantee that football will be different.
This is by no means a problem of just yesterday or today; it is a problem that has persisted and accumulated over a long time, eventually bursting out. Consequently, Korean football has been in a very problematic and serious state for a very long time.
Despite this, they have been busy trying to cover up and hide these problems, and because they failed to correct their arrogant and gambling-like attitude—thinking that public opinion would quiet down and be covered up if they just achieved good results in national matches—Korean football may continue to be told that there is no hope or development.
In fact, because Korean football's status, popularity, and topicality were so great, whenever they won even a single match in large tournaments like the World Cup or Asian Cup, the atmosphere would go crazy and the seriousness and problems of Korean football would be covered up by public opinion all at once. It is an undeniable fact that this ultimately drove Korean football further into darkness.
Regardless of the controversy, the public sentiment of "As long as they won, isn't it fine?" or "If they produced good results, that's all that matters!" and the attitude of approaching national matches with that mindset allowed the pitch-black problems hidden behind to be covered up. And since even those results eventually turned bad, it was perhaps inevitable that such a situation would erupt.