By Like any report coming out of North Korea who knows how true this is, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it was in fact true:
North Korea’s football manager has been punished for the team’s World Cup flop by being made to work on a building site, according to The Sun.The report said Kim Jong-hun, 53, will be grafting as a laborer for up to 14 hours a day.The coach received his sentence after he and his players faced a six-hour grilling from 400 officials of the Communist country’s hardline regime, the daily reported.Kim was also stripped of his membership of the Workers’ Party of Korea, led by pint-sized Kim Jong-il.The Sun said the dictator was furious as the team lost all three matches, including a humiliating 7-0 thrashing by Portugal.What made it worse for the tiny tyrant was his decision to allow that match to be shown on state TV after North Korea’s narrow 2-1 defeat by Brazil in their opening game. [Korea Herald]
You can read more at the link.
2:20 am on August 4th, 2010 1
Old news, but this was harsh. This was the first time the Norks have even qualified and it wasn't entirely his fault. It makes me think we would any even bother coaching football up there if they are just going to be punished for losing is one of two choices in each game.
2:33 am on August 4th, 2010 2
Yeah, another great move by the small leader with the perm. My Chinese colleagues kept saying how all the Chinese newspapers were talking about how NK will punish their players (this was during the World Cup) and I kept assuring them that I'm sure NK WILL NOT do anything to punish them as it's in the international spotlight. Thanks for crashing any kind of credibility I gave to your regime, KJI. Why would I even THINK that the NK regime would be civilized about losing a sports tournament??!
6:07 am on August 4th, 2010 3
If more countries would do this you would have more buildings.
7:36 am on August 4th, 2010 4
Trouble is Pete, North Korea sometimes takes 20 plus years to build one. They have finally just recently put glass on the Ministry of Truth.
9:24 am on August 4th, 2010 5
I sure wish the coaching staff of the 1992 Houston Oilers could have done some hard time. Jack Pardee should still be making big rocks into little rocks.
For those who don't recall: the Bills (with a BACKUP QB) recovered from a 32-point deficit to win in overtime, and it remains the largest comeback in NFL history.
If not for this, the Oilers would have gone on to lose in the Super Bowl.
7:12 pm on August 4th, 2010 6
sorry my grammar was terrible
10:51 am on August 5th, 2010 7
Ironically, he's being punished because North Korea has a small pool of world class athletes as a result of Kim Jong il's use of famine for population control.
2:04 pm on August 5th, 2010 8
I wonder how the next unlucky man who is picked to be the NK soccer coach is going to try to get out of it. Maybe he could do like KJI's former chef and say he has to go to Japan, he could say that he needs to study the Japanese coaching methods then once he gets there then he defects.
2:13 pm on August 5th, 2010 9
I don't imagine there are many world class soccer coaches in North Korea, either.
7:27 am on August 6th, 2010 10
@Wikkie
They actually also qualified in 1966.