South Korea's stay-away soccer coach, locker room dust up dismays fans

SEOUL -- The scent of countless candlelit dinners still hung in the air in downtown Seoul the morning after Valentine's Day, but there was little love felt by protesters outside the headquarters of the Korea Football Association (KFA). The country's men's national team was in turmoil, and banners demanded answers. "We have had enough of people putting their own interests above Korean soccer," one fan from Seoul, Kim Min-ji, told Nikkei Asia.

The reason for the angry gathering was that South Korea's quest to win the AFC Asian Cup for the first time since 1960 had ended in failure the previous week in Qatar with a shocking semifinal loss to Jordan, a team ranked 87th in the world, 64 spots below South Korea.