A long-suppressed audit has resurfaced, raising difficult questions about how football officials handled foreign guests and organizational expenses.<\/p>\n
The Korea Football Association (KFA) has apologized following the release of a government document alleging that funds may have been used to pay for sexual services for foreign referees and football officials in 2011\u20132012.<\/p>\n
The report was prepared by South Korea\u2019s Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism following an anti-corruption audit of the KFA conducted in 2016. Details of the document became public after broadcaster JTBC obtained it. CNN also reviewed the report, which was provided through the office of lawmaker Jin Sun-mi.<\/p>\n
The audit materials state that the association paid for \u201csexual entertainment\u201d at massage parlors for foreign football referees and officials during their visits to South Korea on at least eight occasions. Three of the matches mentioned were part of qualification for the World Cup and the Olympic Games.<\/p>\n
Expenses were recorded as payments for food, drinks, and massages<\/p>\n
One of the incidents described in the report took place on September 21, 2011, after South Korea\u2019s match against Oman in qualification for the 2012 London Olympics. The following day, the four referees who officiated the game were allegedly taken to a massage parlor. The KFA spent 760,000 Korean won, or $536, on the visit.<\/p>\n
In the financial report, association employees stated that the money had allegedly been spent on alcohol after the match. The audit also mentions other similar incidents:<\/p>\n
February 29, 2012 \u2013 before South Korea\u2019s match against Kuwait in qualification for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil;
\nMarch 14, 2012 \u2013 during South Korea\u2019s Olympic qualifying match against Qatar.<\/p>\n
Over one year, according to the document, the KFA spent nearly 5.6 million Korean won \u2013 approximately $3,950 \u2013 on \u201csexual entertainment.\u201d Some payments were recorded as expenses for food, drinks, or standard massage services.<\/p>\n
The report also refers to payments for sexual services for three representatives of the Chinese Football Association who came to South Korea under a referee exchange program.<\/p>\n
The Japan Football Association said it was reviewing information about the possible involvement of four Japanese referees. The nationalities of the other referees mentioned in the audit materials were not specified.<\/p>\n
KFA apology and audit findings<\/p>\n
We deeply apologize for the concern caused by various issues, ranging from parliamentary hearings and searches to media reports about events from more than a decade ago, of which many association members were unaware.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Korea Football Association<\/p>\n
The KFA stressed that cases of improper conduct or misuse of corporate cards \u201cabsolutely do not occur\u201d today. The association added that it introduced a \u201cclean card\u201d system in 2013, which blocks corporate card payments at massage parlors and karaoke bars.<\/p>\n
The government audit concluded that the problem was institutional in nature. Although one employee played the main role, according to the document, his actions allegedly took place with the organization\u2019s approval.<\/p>\n
In December 2017, prosecutors decided not to pursue the case further due to insufficient evidence. The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism confirmed that it had referred the materials for additional review and required the KFA to take appropriate measures.<\/p>\n
The new details intensified public pressure on the football association after South Korea\u2019s disappointing performance at the 2026 World Cup, where the team was eliminated in the group stage. Following this, President Lee Jae Myung demanded an investigation into the KFA\u2019s activities, and the national team coach resigned.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A long-suppressed audit has resurfaced, raising difficult questions about how football officials handled foreign guests and organizational expenses.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":116299,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[59907,59908,43296,31,59909,59906,154,59910,59911],"class_list":["post-116298","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-korea","tag-football-corruption","tag-foreign-referees","tag-kfa-investigation","tag-korea","tag-korean-football-scandal","tag-korean-football-scandal-kfa-investigation-football-corruption-foreign-referees-south-korea-football-association-sexual-services-allegations","tag-news","tag-sexual-services-allegations","tag-south-korea-football-association"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116298","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116298"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116298\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/116299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}