Furious South Koreans agree to play for bronze

DOHA, Dec 14 (Reuters) South Korea have decided not to boycott their Asian Games handball bronze medal match but maintain they were the victims of ''biased'' refereeing in a controversial semi-final loss to hosts Qatar.

Korea's Olympic committee (KOC) had lodged an official protest over the game and yesterday threatened to boycott the bronze medal match if the Asian Handball Federation refused to schedule a rematch.

''We still maintain that the referees were biased, but we will play the bronze medal match,'' coach Park Do-hun was quoted as saying by state news agency Yonhap.

The game's two Kuwaiti referees disallowed several South Korean goals and hit them with 10 two-minute penalties that left the team shorthanded for much of the game.

Qatar ran out 40-28 winners over the five-times champions.

The AHF said it studied the match and found no problems with any of the referees' calls.

Yoon Kyung-shin, handball world player of the year in 2001, said the refereeing had ''made an embarrassment of handball.'' South Korea will face Iran on Thursday, while Qatar take on Kuwait for the gold.

REUTERS SAM ND1452