South Korea's Football Association Apologises as Scandal Over Payments to Foreign Referees Goes Public

South Korea's football association has apologised for "various controversies" — including alleged payments for sexual favours provided to foreign referees — after a decade-old government report was made public by broadcaster JTBC (BBC Sport).

The Korea Football Association (KFA) issued its formal statement on August 8, 2026, a weekend, capping a week in which police raided its Seoul offices and a buried government audit surfaced through investigative reporting (Yonhap News TV).

The core allegations date to the early 2010s. A 2016 report by South Korea's Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism found that KFA staff used association credit cards to pay roughly 5.6 million won (about £2,927) for "sexual entertainment" at massage parlours, provided to foreign referees visiting South Korea to officiate matches. Those referees took charge of qualifying matches for the 2014 World Cup and the 2012 London Olympics — tournaments for which South Korea's national team qualified. The expenses were filed under false pretences, the report concluded, with staff claiming the money covered food, drink, or legitimate massages (BBC Sport).

JTBC obtained KFA documents showing specific payments, including 500,000 won spent at a massage parlour for two World Cup qualifying referees and sexual favours arranged for four referees at London Olympic qualifiers. The broadcaster reported that payments were made on match days or the night before (JTBC). A KFA official told JTBC that such practices were "common practice back in those days" (BBC Sport).

The ministry's audit was compiled in 2016 but never released publicly. South Korea's Board of Audit and Inspection had investigated the KFA's corporate cards in 2012, when the scandal could have surfaced but did not (JTBC).

The KFA's apology statement also referenced police raids on the association, which took place on August 6, 2026, as part of an "obstruction of business" investigation into the appointment process of former manager Hong Myung-bo (Reuters; SBS News). In the statement, the KFA said such misconduct and misuse of corporate cards is not occurring at present, and noted that many current staff were unaware of events "from over a decade ago" (BBC Sport).

The scandal has now spread beyond South Korea. The Japan Football Association confirmed it is investigating four Japanese referees who participated in the relevant matches, according to JTBC (JTBC).

Hong Myung-bo and KFA president Chung Mong-gyu both resigned earlier this summer after public anger over South Korea's performance at the 2026 World Cup, where the team failed to advance from a group containing Mexico, the Czech Republic, and South Africa. The KFA apology cited that poor campaign alongside the referee allegations, bundling the two sources of public anger into a single statement (BBC Sport).

For a football association already reeling from on-field disappointment and a police investigation into its coaching appointment, the emergence of a decade-old government report adds a layer of institutional scandal that reaches beyond results. The suggestion that providing sexual favours to visiting referees was customary practice, acknowledged by a KFA official on the record, points to a culture problem rather than a one-off lapse — and the files sat in a government drawer for ten years before anyone outside the building read them.