Refereeing controversy still following Koreans

LEIPZIG, June 19: South Korea's battling 1-1 draw with 1998 champions France revived memories of their remarkable run to the semi-finals in 2002 but also served a reminder that they are not immune from refereeing controversy.

The Koreans stunned Italy and Spain on their way to a fourth-place finish at the last World Cup but their achievement was overshadowed by allegations of incompetence and even bias against match officials.

Television replays suggested France should have taken a 2-0 lead in the 32nd minute of yesterday's match at the Zentralstadion in Leipzig when a Patrick Vieira header looked well over the line despite goalkeeper Lee Woon-jae's efforts to claw it away.

Mexican referee Benito Archundia waved play on and further enraged the French in the 85th minute by booking Zinedine Zidane and ruling him out of the next match against Togo.

In the quarter-finals in 2002, Spain's players were furious at two controversially disallowed goals and Ivan Helguera had to be restrained from the referee at the end of the match after South Korea sealed victory in a penalty shootout.

In the previous round, Ecuador's Byron Moreno turned down Italian pleas for a penalty, wrongly disallowed a goal for offside and sent Francesco Totti off for diving.

French goalscorer Thierry Henry was visibly angry after the match yesterday and did not hold back in his criticism of Archundia and his colleagues.

''The referees are pretty quick to give yellow cards for no reason but when it's about having a proper referee's decision I did not see one today,'' Henry told reporters. ''I knew the ball was clearly in and it should have been 2-0.'' South Korea coach Dick Advocaat dismissed French complaints.

''The chance from Vieira? It was not a goal because it (the result) was 1-1,'' the Dutchman told reporters.

Vieira was more philosophical about the incident and said he had not complained too vigorously at the time because he was not 100 per cent sure the ball had crossed the line.

''I don't know if the position of the referee was good enough but that's the way it is,'' Vieira said.

''This time it was against us but so many times it went for us so you just have to live with it.'' South Korea, who top Group G on four points ahead of France with two, play Switzerland in Hanover on Friday while France take on Togo the same day in Cologne.

REUTERS