Cho Kwang-rae, dismissed earlier this month, said three senior officials at the governing Korea Football Association (KFA) recommended that he pick a certain player. Cho said the recommendation came ahead of South Korea's World Cup qualification matches against the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Lebanon in November.

"I suppose you could recommend someone, but three officials all came up with the same player," Cho said, without identifying the player. "It came from higher-up, so I couldn't really ignore it."

The ex-coach said that didn't mean he would simply go ahead and put that player on the roster.

"Once you lose your integrity and principle, you can't get them back," Cho said. "If I picked that one player, then it would have forced me to choose even more (recommended) players."

Cho explained that he and his coaches took a closer look at the recommended player and discussed his conditioning with the player's professional club. They concluded that the player wasn't physically ready to represent the country, Cho added.

"We all agreed that he just wasn't in shape to join the national team," the ex-coach said. "In that situation, I couldn't compromise with outside pressure."

Cho claimed that after he declined to choose that said player, the KFA became uncooperative with the national team.

He said he had asked the KFA's technical committee for a scouting report on an earlier match between Lebanon and Kuwait, but the committee refused, citing budgetary issues. Cho also said the KFA rejected his request to expand the roster from 23 to 25 players so he could prepare for unexpected injuries or ejections.

Cho was fired after South Korea fell 2-1 to Lebanon, a loss that put South Korea's hopes of reaching the 2014 World Cup in jeopardy. The technical committee, which handles hiring and firing of national team coaches, was criticized for neglecting proper steps to hand Cho the pink slip. Cho on Monday had a few choice words for the head of the committee, Hwangbo Kwan.

"I am sure Hwangbo clearly understands that the national team selection is based on players' performance, conditioning and understanding of strategies," Cho said. "Hwangbo was present when the senior officials recommended that player."

Cho said he was hoping for a better coaching environment for his successor, Choi Kang-hee, who took the helm last week.

"There will be no future for South Korean football if a national team head coach is swayed by outside pressure," Cho said.

"It's an embarrassing situation."

Lee Hoi-taek, vice chairman of the KFA who had been head of the technical committee until November, denied there had been any pressure on Cho to pick anyone.

"After we lost 3-0 to Japan (in August), Cho approached me and said he needed a fullback," Lee said. "So I told him he should consider Oh Beom-seok, who played at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. But never once during my tenure as the technical committee chief did I ever tell him which player to choose. No one would dare tell Cho Kwang-rae how to pick his team." (Yonhap News)