With the national team set to compete at the Hangzhou Asian Games in September, Hwang Sun-hong has been dragging his feet as he faces the prospect of having to fill the void left by Lee Sang-min (Seongnam FC), who was suspended for drunk driving.
The Asian Games squad, led by Hwang Sun-hong, will convene at Paju NFC on the 25th for a three-day training camp until the 27th. Hwang will try to win his third consecutive Asian Games gold medal after winning gold at the 2014 Incheon Asian Games and 2018 Jakarta-Palembang Asian Games.
For now, Hwang must prepare for the worst.
First, it’s unclear whether Lee Kang-in, who moved to PSG, will be selected. The Asian Games are not a mandatory call-up tournament recognized by FIFA. Hwang Sun-hong had a deal with his former club Mallorca, but with Lee Kang-in’s move to PSG, he’ll have to find a new one.
Of course, winning a gold medal would mean an exemption from military service and more opportunities to play in Europe, so it’s likely that PSG will be keen to recruit him.
The bigger question is whether a replacement can be found for Lee Sang-min, who was dropped from the national team after a drink-driving offense. Lee, who has been a regular in the Asian Games squad since the U23 Asian Cup qualifiers and tournament, was included in the final list but was controversially dropped after it was later revealed that he had been disciplined for drunk driving in 2020.
According to Article 17 of the KFA’s National Football Team Regulations, anyone who has been sentenced to a fine of more than 5 million won for an offense involving drunk driving, and the sentence has not been finalized for three years, is ineligible to represent the national team.
In June 2020, Lee was suspended for 15 official K League games by the Korean Professional Football Association after he was caught driving under the influence of alcohol, and in August that year, he was sentenced to a fine of 5 million won for violating a road traffic law. As a result, he was ineligible to be selected for the national team until August 4, 2023, but Hwang and the KFA did not know this in advance, sparking controversy.
As the controversy grew, the KFA issued a statement on Aug. 18, confirming the exclusion of Lee Sang-min from the roster.
The association explained, “In the case of the player in question, he played in the K League 2 from 2020 until now and was disciplined by the Korean Football Association for drunk driving, and was subsequently selected for the age group national team, but compared to K League 1 or A national team players, neither league news nor player-related information is relatively well known to the outside world, so at the time of the first selection in 2021, we were unable to properly review the relevant regulations in relation to this fact.” “In this regard, we cannot but admit that the association was immature in handling the relevant procedures,” the association said. 메이저사이트
Before excluding Lee, the federation submitted its final list to the Asian Games organizer, the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA). Under the rules of the Games, final rosters cannot be changed unless there is an injury or a medical issue. Lee Sang-min falls into neither category. This means that a replacement may not be available.