City-Atletico game offers relief from KFA scandals

SEOUL — Around 50,000 fans watched Manchester City beat Atletico Madrid 3-1 in a preseason exhibition game at Seoul World Cup Stadium on Sunday, offering a rare opportunity for soccer to make headlines for its on-field action in what has been a scandal-hit summer in South Korea.

The big transfer news of the period saw South Korea's star player Lee Kang-in move from Paris Saint-Germain to Atletico last month in a deal reportedly worth more than $40 million.

Despite Lee's second-half introduction, he couldn't prevent City rallying from a goal down to win.

Sixteen-year-old Jorge Dominguez put Atletico ahead just before the break, but two goals from Omar Marmoush and one from Rayan Ait-Nouri gave the English club the victory.

The match offered a welcome break from the World Cup fallout, which involved police raids and parliamentary hearings.

A leaked government audit recently revealed that Korea Football Association (KFA) officials used corporate credit cards in 2011 and 2012 to pay for services at adult entertainment venues for foreign referees.

"We express our sincere apologies for causing concerns over a range of issues, from a parliamentary hearing and an unprecedented police raid to media reports about incidents from more than a decade ago that even members within the federation were unaware of," the KFA said in a statement Saturday.

Leading soccer pundit Park Moon-sung was unimpressed with the extent of the apology.

"Are match-fixing and sexual services ... something that can be brushed aside by saying, 'why bring up events from more than a decade ago that we did not know about?'" Park posted on social media.

That was the latest controversy. Anger erupted in June after South Korea's poor World Cup performance, with the Taegeuk Warriors losing two of three games and failing to advance from the group stage.

The general reaction was so fierce that police revived a stalled investigation into the appointment of head coach Hong Myung-bo in July 2024. Hong's appointment had prompted accusations that KFA president Chung Mong-gyu and technical director Lee Lim-saeng failed to follow the KFA's own hiring process.

In July, Hong and Chung, who have both stepped down from their KFA roles, were questioned by lawmakers at the National Assembly about their actions.

A government-backed K-Football Innovation Committee, co-chaired by former Manchester United star Park Ji-sung, has been established to recommend changes to the governance structure of the KFA.

Currently without a head coach and federation chief, the KFA is hoping to hire an interim coach ahead of the 2027 Asian Cup in Saudi Arabia in January.

AP