Yang Celtic promise 'broken' as South Korea boss fumes after Olympics failure

Celtic have been accused of breaking a promise to release Yang to South Korea under-23s.

Manager Hwang Seon-hong says the Hoops, Brentford and Stoke had all said they would allow him to call up players for the Asian Under 23s Cup before going back on their word. Korea flopped in the tournament, losing on penalties to Indonesia in the quarter-finals.

With the top three clubs qualifying for the Olympics, they've failed to make that tournament for the first time in over 30 years. Hwang Seon-hong, who is also currently interim boss of the senior side, admits he takes some responsibility for the failure but also bemoaned not being able to include Yang in his squad along with Kim Ji-soo and Bae Jun-ho.

He said: "Firstly, I am the coach and I take full responsibility. However, there were circumstances beyond our control such as the failure of some European clubs to release players.

"I personally visited Celtic, Brentford and Stoke City and I was promised the participation of Yang Hyun-jun, Kim Ji-soo and Bae Jun-ho. But when the tournament came, the clubs all refused to release their players because all were at a crucial stage at the end of their season.

"What could I do? I visited all of them. But yes, there was a lack of preparation for Plan B and Plan C in case the European players failed to join up.”