Korea Football Association vehicles parked outside the association's office in Cheonan [Yonhap]
Korea Football Association vehicles parked outside the association's office in Cheonan [Yonhap]

South Korea's national football team went unbeaten in all seven matches officiated by foreign referees who had received sexual entertainment from the Korea Football Association, newly surfaced records show.

An audit conducted by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism in 2016 — the contents of which came to light Friday — found that the KFA provided sexual entertainment to more than 10 foreign referees and match officials across seven matches played in South Korea between March 2011 and March 2012, comprising three World Cup and Olympic qualifying matches and four friendly matches.

The referees who officiated those matches were Japanese, Emirati, Iranian, Bahraini and Uzbek nationals.

South Korea won five and drew two of those seven matches. In the three qualifying matches — where advancement to major tournaments was at stake — Korea recorded two wins and one draw.

In the first leg of the final round of 2012 London Olympics qualifying against Oman on Sept. 21, 2011, Korea won 2-0, taking the most important opening match in the round-robin competition. In the sixth and final qualifying match on March 14, 2012, Korea and Qatar drew 0-0. Korea had already secured its place at the Olympics and finished the qualifying campaign unbeaten with three wins and three draws.

The coach leading the Olympic squad at the time was Hong Myung-bo, the former senior national team manager. Hong guided that Olympic side to a bronze medal in London.

Korea also beat Kuwait 2-0 in a 2014 Brazil World Cup qualifying match on Feb. 29, 2012, clinching a spot in the final Asian qualifying round.

Among the senior national team's friendly matches flagged in the ministry audit, Korea went two wins and one draw — beating Honduras 4-0 and Serbia 2-1, and drawing with Poland 2-2. In an Olympic squad friendly against China, Korea also won 1-0.

On results alone, the KFA's sexual entertainment of match officials appeared to pay off. But regardless of outcomes, the mere fact that such favors were exchanged is an international embarrassment — and one that threatens to undo the goodwill South Korea has built through the global rise of hallyu.

Skeptics abroad have long sneered that South Korea's run to the semifinals of the 2002 FIFA World Cup was the product of bribed referees. With the KFA's provision of sexual entertainment to officials now confirmed by its own government's audit, those claims have become far harder to refute.


yjc@heraldcorp.com