The disclosure of the national football association’s alleged provision of sexual entertainment to foreign referees between 2011 and 2012 is expanding beyond national disgrace toward doubts over the legitimacy of Korea’s landmark 2002 World Cup semifinal advancement. It has revived the 24-year-old suspicions that the Korean national team had been favored during the World Cup matches and thus gained the exceptional result, although there is no ground to back the suspicion of any illegality involved. However, regardless of the correlation between Korea's good performance and the alleged provision of sexual entertainment, the scandal is tarnishing the country's image and intensifying criticism for the already embattled Korea Football Association (KFA). Some foreign media outlets, especially those in Japan, which co-hosted the 2002 World Cup with Korea, have been reporting on these allegations, which was made public last week and were revealed through a 2016 Korean government audit. The audit showed the KFA’s corporate credit cards were allegedly used to pay for sexual entertainment f