The Korea Football Association provided sexual entertainment to foreign referees officiating national team matches, it has been revealed. The misconduct was confirmed during a 2016 Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism audit but was never made public.
A lawmaker's office in the National Assembly confirmed that the KFA provided sexual entertainment to about 10 foreign referees and match officials between March 2011 and March 2012, according to Yonhap.
The incidents occurred across seven matches, including the 2014 Brazil World Cup qualifier against Kuwait in February 2012, the 2012 London Olympics qualifier against Oman in September 2011, and the London Olympics qualifier against Qatar in March 2012.
KFA employees paid for the sexual entertainment using corporate cards, spending anywhere from several hundred thousand won to more than 1 million won ($702) per occasion.
All of the incidents took place during the tenure of former KFA president Cho Joong-yeon.
The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism uncovered the misconduct during a 2016 audit of the KFA, but the findings were not released to the public at the time.
A KFA official said the association could no longer access detailed records because the document retention period had expired, adding that it had since put in place a strict corporate card management system.
moon@heraldcorp.com
