2002 World Cup South Korea

1. 2002 World Cup South Korea Scandal

I became a fan of South Korea during the 2002 world cup. Seeing a team of underdogs being led by Guus Hiddink to 4th place is something I will remember. Years later I came across videos on youtube describing the matches vs Spain and Italy as refereeing scandals. Reddit seems to agree with this viewpoint, as seen in threads such as. Working video. A video where someone has gone ahead and made a video weaving korean fouls, angry opponents, dramatic music and camera angles with each other to create some sort of evidence that it was all rigged. Often it leaves out the refs decision on the incident, making it seem like the koreans 'got away with it'.

I would have appreciated the video if it had made any attempt at staying objective, but that did not seem to be the video makers cup of tea. (Yes, I am calling the video a piece of shit and a massive dramatization) I personally never remembered them as such, but winning arguments on the internet about old football games is not exactly something I was interested in delving further into, especially not on youtube, so I dropped it. Well, today I was bored, and I found a video up on youtube covering (what i thought) was the entire South Korea vs Italy game, so I figured: why not, I will watch it and take note on every relevant decision the ref makes. It seems like 2 minutes of the first half of extra time + the last minutes of the second extra time is missing. This I didn't know until I had actually watched the 2 hour 10 minute video, but that much of the game should suffice.

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Here are my notes, with a link to the video time so you can judge for yourself if this was truly one of the worst refereeing jobs of all time. If you want me to do the same thing for the spain - korea game I will do so. I will maintain objectivity throughout my notes, leaving my opinion at the bottom. I am aware that the referee later in his career was involved in matchfixing in ecuador, but lets not assume every single match he refereed was fixed, shall we? Yellow card to an italian player. Penalty to korea.

There are no replays and the video quality is shit, I can spot the incident the ref is blowing for but the camera is too for away for it to be possible to see. The ref himself is however very close to the situation. Yellow card to a korean player. 1-0 to Italy Yellow card to Totti, clear elbow to the head.

A free kick is awarded to korea. An italian player (coco) is hurt in a duel, no decision by the ref. This can be seen at a shittier angle in the 'scandal' video.

Italian player pulls the shirt of the korean player, the korean player retaliates with an elbow. Both players gets told to calm down by the ref and a free kick is awarded to korea.

2002 World Cup South Korea Scandal

Korea gets a free kick Free kick for korea, Zanetti gets a yellow card for protesting Free kick for Italy Korea equalizes, 1-1. Korean player gets a yellow card. Korean Free Kick. Totti gets a yellow for diving, which means he is sent off. Replay of the incident Offside call, the angle is terrible.

I also began noting down all of the fouls after around 15 minutes into the game, landing at 20 free kicks for Italy and 17 for Korea. I think the free kick at 1.06.30 was the wrong call. I think the free kick at 1.23 is deserving of a yellow card. I think Totti dived.

It's very clear that the korean player is first on the ball. I do not know if he actually deserved a yellow for the dive. Italy has 3-4 offsides throughout the game, some are closer than others, but its not like an incorrect offside call is a rarity.

When you play that kind of football it is pretty common (as you all know) to have that one chance that actually was onside. Overall I saw excellent korean and italian football, a very back and forth game and good refereeing. Can you show me what made this such a controversial game? Because I like cheering for korea, and I dont want to listen to this shit about korea rigging the world cup every time my favourite team is brought up. The notion is absurd anyway, you have to somehow pay off 3+ referees + their linesmen and tell them to somehow as subtly as possible rig the games so that korea wins by the smallest margin possible.

It's just not possible. (I'm sorry about the formatting, why is there no preview tool?). I'm not completely objective about this either, nut this is my opinion: Totti didn't dive.

A player tumbling because of a player hitting them is not a dive. A dive is when there is no contact at all. Totti was at full speed so most contact will result in him not being able to continue running. I will not say it was a penalty, because he does get the ball, albeit somewhat accidentally.

However, in no way was this a dive and that yellow card remains one of the worst decisions I've ever seen in my life. Regarding the offside, yes, a missed offside call happens. But if it is an offside call which would have resulted in a clear goal (as it was here), then there will be outcry. This is nothing extraordinary, it happens all the time. Regarding the penalty, I can't be sure, so I'll give some slack there. The incident at 1.03.40 is a red.

It's an elbow, so it's a red. So was the elbow by Vieri. Totti's elbow wasn't intentional, so the yellow was correct and not a red. The incident at 1.23 isn't a yellow, it's a red.

It's a high, stretched, flying tackle from behind with no intention to play the ball whatsoever. If that isn't a red, I don't know what is. Also, you missed the kick to Madini's head, which is at least a yellow.

I think the ref was paid off. I've played enough amateur football to know that a biased referee can influence a match in a team's favor without calling all fouls for one side and none for the other. It's all about picking the key moments to slightly tilt the scales in a team's favor. I do think that it's unfair to blame Korea for this. Though they were the ones that profited from it, it's not the team or the nation that is to blame. First blame goes to the refs and I also suspect either FIFA and their corruption or some gambling syndicate having a particular interest in seeing Korea go far.

The ref of the match was clearly no saint and had ties to the criminal underbelly, which makes it even more dubious. Tl;dr Yes, the ref was atrocious. Yes, I think he was bought.

Yes, it's a shame that tournament has such a foul taste. No, the Koreans weren't to blame and people should stop doing that and rather blame FIFA for being incompetent or corrupt and most likely both. But why do you think he was bought? Surely if he was bought he would have tried to affect the outcome of the match? Korea equalizes at the 88th minute, and the only incidents leading up to that goal is incorrectly choosing not to penalize the korean elbow at 1.03.40 and giving out a penalty which we as observers can't say much about. I completely agree with you that the card to totti was unwarranted, and that the ref was too far away to properly see the situation, but that call was made after 2 hours of football had already been played! My point here is that if he was so good at matchfixing as you think he was, he would never need to add to a match back in equador, it just doesn't add up.