Ideas Above Their Station - South Korean Coach Quit

Despite leading South Korea to a second successive World Cup Finals, their coach Jo Bonfrere has resigned, as reported in the International Herald Tribune and elsewhere.

Far be it from me to derive amusement from this, but the following quote did make me chuckle :

"Coach Bonfrere has decided it would be difficult for him to continue being a coach under current circumstances," said Lee Hoi Taek, chairman of the association committee. "And the technical committee members agreed with him on this".

Not so much resigned as fired, then.

Essentially, it seems that Mr Bonfrere was,um, forcibly resigned because of the poor performances of his team. Now, while South Korea reached the Semi Finals of the 2002 World Cup tournament, they did so on home turf and with - shall we say - some interesting, but helpful, refereeing decisions along the way. It appears that this success has gone to the heads of the aforementioned Association Committee and they are punishing their coach for doing his job.

There are, doubtless, some good players in the South Korean side, but the Koreans are not footballing giants and their Association would do well to remember this when it comes to finding a replacement for the hapless Mr Bonfrere.