A former South Korean Football Association official reportedly told investigators that bribing referees with visits to sexual massage parlors was "common" — and that in some cases, the referees expected it.
That's the claim sitting at the center of a growing scandal engulfing the KFA, with South Korean broadcaster JTBC and national news agency Yonhap both reporting that the association paid for foreign referees to visit massage parlors offering sexual services before at least seven international matches between 2011 and 2012.
The match that makes this explosive
The most damaging allegation involves a February 2012 World Cup qualifying match against Kuwait. According to the reports, two Japanese assistant referees were taken to a massage parlor ahead of the game. South Korea won 2-0 and advanced to the next round of qualifying. Whether the officiating was influenced is unproven — but the question now hangs permanently over that result.
The investigation is reportedly built on credit card records and documents from a government audit. Each visit allegedly cost the equivalent of several hundred euros. And while sexual massage parlors operate widely across South Korea, prostitution is illegal — meaning the alleged payments weren't just an ethics violation, they were potentially criminal. FIFA and Asian football governing bodies also explicitly prohibit any financial compensation to match officials, full stop.
What's particularly uncomfortable is the timeline. These incidents were reportedly flagged back in 2016 during a Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism audit of the KFA. They were buried. Nine years later, they're out.
The KFA is already on fire
This isn't landing in a vacuum. South Korean football authorities raided the KFA's offices just this week over a separate controversy — allegations that former national team coach Hong Myung-bo was handed his job through backroom dealings rather than any proper appointment process. The association is under pressure from multiple directions simultaneously.
For anyone tracking Asian football governance, the KFA's credibility as an institution is taking damage that won't be easy to repair. Two scandals, one raid, and a buried audit from 2016 that should have been made public years ago.
