A KBS investigation has confirmed that executives of the Korea Football Association paid a significant amount of money, over 10 million won ($9,000,000), at a restaurant owned by Vice President Choi Young-il's wife in 2021 and 2022, as well as in 2023, using a corporate card.
According to the 'Business Expenses and Corporate Card Usage of Korean Football Association Executives' disclosed on the Sports Support Portal of the Korea Sports Federation, the executives of the Korean Football Association paid a total of 12.3 million won ($24.7 million) in 2021, 6.18 million won in 2022, and 3.64 million won in 2023 at a restaurant called 'Sun X Street' using corporate cards.
In particular, in 2022, a total of 6.18 million won was paid 22 times at 'Sun X Street' alone, which is an overwhelmingly high number of payments in terms of both number and amount. From October to the end of the year, he visited the restaurant nine times.
'Sun X Family' is a Japanese restaurant run by the wife of Choi Young-il, the current vice president of the Korea Football Association, from her bedroom. This is the reason why there is a controversy about “funneling public money” to Choi's wife's restaurant.
In response to these allegations, Vice Chairman Choi Young-il said in a call with KBS, “The allegations of funneling public funds to my spouse are very unfair,” and explained that “I registered my marriage with the president of ‘Sun X Family’ on February 15, 2024, and before that, we were not spouses. It was used before marriage.” The allegations of funneling public funds to his wife's restaurant are neither timely nor contextual.
Vice Chairman Choi also said, “The restaurant called ‘Sun X Street’ 메이저사이트 is very quiet and it's nice to meet people. There is no other place in Jamsil where you can eat as quietly as Sun X Street. Of course, I didn't make all the payments; the executives came and went and scratched it even when I wasn't there,” he added.
However, it is difficult to understand how so many executives could have met and eaten at a restaurant in Songpa-gu, Seoul, 20 kilometers away from Jongno-gu, Seoul, where the KFA's offices are located, unless it was a “drive-by”.
According to soccer circles, Choi Young-il's relationship with the Sun X family began around 2019. However, only three years of corporate card usage from 2021 to 2023 are currently available on the sports support portal of the Korea Sports Federation. If the KFA were to disclose the corporate card details prior to 2021, the amount of money spent on Sun X Family could be even higher.
Until recently, the KFA did not disclose corporate card usage on the KFA's support portal, citing the possibility of “violating personal information laws” for its executives, but after criticism from the National Audit Office, the KFA relented.
In 2017, the KFA was also accused of using corporate cards for personal use at golf courses and karaoke bars, leading to the arrest of 12 former and current executives, including then-football association president Cho Jung-yeon and vice president Lee Hoe-taek.
Today's national audit by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism will also include Chung Mong-kyu, the head of the KFA, and will focus on allegations of funneling money to the wife of vice president Choi Young-il's restaurant.