A former official at the Korea Football Association reportedly said that arranging sexual massages for foreign referees was not just common — it was sometimes expected. That one line tells you everything about what's being alleged here.
South Korean broadcaster JTBC and state news agency Yonhap have both reported that the KFA allegedly paid for foreign referees to visit massage parlors offering sexual services ahead of at least seven international matches between 2011 and 2012. The evidence trail includes credit card statements and documents from a government audit.
The World Cup qualifier that sits at the center of this
The most damaging allegation involves a decisive 2014 World Cup qualifying match against Kuwait in February 2012. According to reports, two Japanese assistant referees were taken to a massage parlor before the game. South Korea won 2-0 and advanced to the next round of qualifying. Whether any calls went South Korea's way that shouldn't have has not been established — but the optics are about as bad as it gets.
Prostitution is illegal in South Korea, and international football regulations flatly prohibit any financial compensation to referees. The KFA appears to have been in breach of both simultaneously.
What makes this worse: South Korean authorities had already uncovered the incidents back in 2016 during a Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism audit of the KFA. They buried it. Eight years later, it's out.
An association already under serious pressure
The timing couldn't be grimmer for the KFA. Authorities raided the association's offices just this week over a separate controversy — the appointment of former national team coach Hong Myung-bo is alleged to have bypassed standard hiring procedures entirely. The KFA is accused of engineering the job for him without a proper application process.
Two active scandals, a government raid, and an eight-year-old cover-up now in the open. South Korean football's governing body is in freefall, and any match integrity questions hanging over this national team will linger regardless of what investigations ultimately prove.
