Lee Sang-min of Seongnam FC, who was on the final list of the 22-member Hangzhou Asian Games national team despite his drunk driving history.
<Hwang Sun-hong / Head coach of the Asian Games national team> “It was such a difficult task that my head was complicated even now, and it was difficult. It’s hard to decide…”
As the controversy over the qualification of the national team intensified, the Korea Football Association eventually decided to exclude the entry in four days.
It was with the announcement that he would do his best to prevent a recurrence, acknowledging that the selection of players did not meet the national team’s operating regulations.
Coach Hwang Sun-hong also apologized for the careless selection process.
Lee Sang-min was caught by the police in May 2020 when he was a member of Asan, Chungcheongnam-do, K League 2.
About two months later, a fine of 5 million won was confirmed.
However, since more than a year later, Hwang has selected Lee Sang-min as a representative of various levels, including teams under the age of 22, and has been using him as a main defender.
Finally, this time, the Asian Games national team, which has a chance to benefit from military service exemption, was even on board.
If you are fined more than 5 million won for drunk driving, there is a rule of the Korea Football Association that you will be disqualified from the national team for three years, but it was not.
According to the regulations, Lee Sang-min cannot be selected for the national team until the 4th of next month.
The Korea Football Association gave a difficult explanation that the incident occurred because it was difficult to grasp information on K League 2 players, unlike the A national team or K League 1.
Currently, we are checking whether substitute players can be deployed through the Korea Sports Council, but it does not seem easy.
According to regulations, the replacement of the final list of the Asian Games is only possible when there are medical reasons such as injuries until six hours before the first game.