The Korea Football Association (KFA) provided sexual entertainment to foreign match officials across seven international fixtures between March 2011 and March 2012, according to a government audit report cited by Yonhap news agency on Friday. South Korea won five and drew two of those matches, which included qualifiers for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil and the 2012 London Olympics.
The findings originate from a document titled “Investigation Results on Corruption among KFA Executives and Staff,” compiled by South Korea’s Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism in 2016. JTBC, which first broadcast the story on August 6, obtained the report and detailed the specific transactions involved. Despite the audit being completed nearly a decade ago, its contents were never made public.
What the Credit Card Records Show
The audit documents are damning. Specific payment records detailed in the audit show that on the morning of February 29, 2012, ahead of South Korea’s 2014 World Cup qualifier against Kuwait at Seoul World Cup Stadium, a KFA corporate card was used to pay 500,000 won at an adult massage parlour in the Gangnam district of Seoul. A second transaction of 760,000 won was recorded at a massage business in Changwon on September 22, 2011, following South Korea’s Olympic qualifier against Oman at the Changwon Football Center.
Starnewskorea.com reported that the seven affected matches included friendly fixtures against Honduras, Serbia, and Poland, as well as qualifiers against Kuwait, Oman, and Qatar. In total, around a dozen referees and match coordinators from Japan, Iran, the UAE, Bahrain, and Uzbekistan reportedly received such hospitality.
KFA Officials Acknowledged the Practice
Former KFA staff members told JTBC the arrangement was standard at the time. One official described to auditors how foreign referees would make their expectations known at the airport or hotel upon arrival, with KFA staff then organising the entertainment. The practice ran quietly for years. Another former official, cited by JTBC, said it was kept strictly confidential for competitive matches, with staff aware they would be dismissed if the arrangement became public.
Prostitution is illegal in South Korea. International football regulations also prohibit any financial compensation of referees beyond official fees.
KFA Already Under Police Investigation
The revelations arrive as the KFA faces separate legal scrutiny. On August 6, police raided the association’s offices in Cheonan and Seoul as part of an investigation into the hiring of former men’s national team head coach Hong Myung-bo. Authorities seized documents relating to whether KFA leadership, including former chairman Chung Mong-gyu, interfered improperly in that appointment process.
The walls are closing in. Arab media outlet 365Score also picked up the story, with Starnewskorea.com noting its particular interest in the matches involving Kuwait, Oman, and Qatar given those nations’ roles as opponents in the affected qualifiers. The outlet described Korean football as facing an unprecedented administrative and moral crisis as criminal investigations and media disclosures continue to mount simultaneously.
