Korean Job Discussion Forums

[cj1976]

Well, not quite but still intriguing for anyone (like me) who suspected that the odd refereeing decisions that helped Korea to a semi-final place in the 2002 World Cup, may not have been completely legit.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2011/sep/23/ecuadorean-referee-jailed-heroin

[World Traveler]

Oh man.

I believe it.

http://matadornetwork.com/abroad/when-a-part-time-writing-job-in-korea-became-international-fraud/

[Sergio Stefanuto]

Well, do we really need evidence? The evidence is all there in the refereeing decisions that were made.

FIFA, like any political authority, is utterly corrupt.

[jvalmer]

I was at that game. The only thing that was wrong with the game were the Italians. They did their standard score 1 goal and then go into defensive mode. If they were truly a better team the score should have been 4-1, like how Argentina destroyed the ROK in the last world cup.

[Lazio]

[litebear]

[seoulsucker]

[cj1976]

[johnnyrook]

Tbh, the Totti incident wasn't a penalty, and while Totti didn't take a dive either, he did leap up appealing for a penalty straight away, and frankly if you go down in the box and embellish it you're putting yourself at risk of getting carded for simulation, there doesn't need to be a conspiracy in place for something like that to happen, so I have no sympathy for him there.

The offside in that game was also a very very tight call, and an easy mistake for linesmen to make without being corrupt. There's probably one bad offside call like that in every single game of football. But the importance of the occasion ensured it came under a finer magnifying glass than most of these incidents would.

Spain got robbed against Korea, no doubt, although Moreno wasn't involved there. Italy were just unlucky. Of course many of the conspiracy theorists put forward the Portugal game as further evidence of the supposed fix, although in that match the red cards given to the Portuguese were 100% correct.

[cj1976]

The reason I am suspicious is because of what happened the last time before that that South Korea hosted a major sporting event. In case, you don't know just look for the Roy Jones Jr 1988 Olympic scandal, where bribery was uncovered.
Anyway, it's all in the past now but I thought it was an interesting article that had a tenuous (at best) link to Korea.

[hogwonguy1979]

[cj1976]

The question you need to ask yourself is would you be surprised if it was revealed that the refs were bribed? After spending time in Korea and learning how things work here, I'd have to say no.

[johnnyrook]

hmm, while there's probably more corruption in Korea than most of our home countries, that's just too big a scale I think. Korea, being the proud country that they are, would never recover from a loss of face like that, and whoever was behind the scam would seriously have to fear for his life bringing that kind of shame on all Koreans, it's not like embezzling money for personal gain, you're criminalizing the whole nation.

[johnnyrook]

[litebear]