PPP lawmaker calls for immediate audit of Korea Football Association over fiscal opacity

People Power Party lawmaker Yoon Sang-hyun said Sunday that "without a complete overhaul of the Korea Football Association, dreams will not come true," calling on the government to immediately carry out an audit of the KFA and disclose how public funds have been spent.

Yoon made the remarks in a Facebook post, saying the national team's group-stage elimination from the World Cup — in a record 48-nation tournament with the lowest qualifying bar in history — was "the worst result ever." The team failed to advance even to the round of 32, let alone the round of 16. "The public's anger is justified," he said.

He said the World Cup elimination was "merely a symptom," with the real cause being "the KFA's all-encompassing incompetence and misconduct." "What has collapsed is the football association's system of public accountability, transparency and responsibility," he said.

On the KFA's operations, Yoon raised four concerns: the association receives massive public funding despite being a private organization yet keeps its finances opaque and closed; its decision-making structure has been privatized; the KFA president has consistently evaded managerial and supervisory responsibility; and the government's support, oversight and overall governance of the body must all be put under scrutiny.

"The KFA's general operating budget runs at around 100 billion won ($64.7 million) a year," he said. "Add in government subsidies, the National Sports Promotion Fund and Sports Toto proceeds, and nearly half of the total comes from taxpayer money and public funds — making it a public institution in effect." He added that the Cheonan Football Center had filed fraudulent subsidy applications and taken out hundreds of billions of won in loans without government approval. "These are not mere allegations — a court of first instance confirmed them as fact in April this year, ruling that subsidies were improperly received and the association's articles of incorporation were violated," he said.

He said that during the process of appointing a national team head coach, the Performance Enhancement Committee — the body established by consensus to handle such decisions — was rendered powerless, the KFA president personally conducted interviews despite having no authority to recommend candidates, and no records were kept. "The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism's own audit concluded the appointment was unfair and opaque, carried out by someone without the authority to do so," he added. "A privatized structure dictated by one person's wishes — that is the essence of its closed nature."

"Reflecting the public's anger, I make this demand forcefully," Yoon said. "The association's president and executive leadership must clearly accept responsibility and disclose the truth, and the government must immediately carry out an audit and make public how public funds have been used."

He also called on the National Assembly to launch a fact-finding inquiry and pursue institutional reform to restore the KFA's public accountability, and urged the association to expand open recruitment for executive positions in order to overcome its organizational insularity and reinvent itself as a football body that truly belongs to the people.

"The public's anger is not simply about losing a game," he said. "It is because an organization that has received the people's love and tax money answered that love with all-encompassing incompetence and misconduct. For Korean football's dreams to be realized, bold reform must happen — and now is the time."