Former and current executives at the national football governing body were charged over allegations of misappropriating the organization's budget, police said Thursday. The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency said 11 former and current employees of the Korea Football Association were arrested without detention for breach of duty, as they allegedly exploited their group's money for private use between 2011 and 2012. The police said Cho Chung-yun, former president of the KFA, took his wife on business trips and used 30 million won ($26,473) of KFA money to cover her travel expenses. Cho also used a corporate credit card to pay green fees of 14 million won when he played golf with his acquaintances, even though it wasn't related to KFA business, according to the police.
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| In this file photo taken Nov. 1, 2012, then Korea Football Association President Cho Chung-yun speaks at a press conference at KFA House in Seoul. (Yonhap) | The police added that former KFA Vice President Lee Hoe-taik, who coached the national football team at the 1990 World Cup, spent 8 million won of KFA money on playing golf, while other executives, including Kim Jin-kook and Kim Joo-sung, spent 30 million won between them. Kim Jin-kook, one of South Korea's football stars of the 1970s, was the KFA general secretary, while Kim Joo-sung, three-time Asian Footballer of the Year, served in the same post and is now in charge of the organization's referee management office. The KFA in April 2012 ordered that its employees only use corporate credit cards for appropriate, KFA-related purposes, but these executives apparently did not follow this directive.Police said one executive, only identified by his surname Lee, used corporate cards at karaoke bars on 30 occasions and at skin care shops for his private use. Another KFA employee was booked on charges of fraud after he lied to officials and received 14.7 million won in family allowances over eight years, even though he was a divorced man. South Korean police in April launched an investigation into the KFA after the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism found through its sports corruption center that former and current workers at the football body had misused its budget. The KFA previously said it had already been carrying out cleanup measures since the ministry started its audit in March.
(Yonhap News)
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