The officiating in Korea and Japan has been questionable and some decisions have been outrageous Click to view caption Football's governing body FIFA is trying to calm the growing furor over World Cup refereeing but admitted match officials had made mistakes. Spanish players claimed that Egyptian referee Gamal El-Ghandour had robbed them of victory over South Korea in Saturday's quarter-final after disallowing two goals for Spain, one in regular time and one in extra time. South Korea went on to reach the semi-final by winning a penalty shoot- out after the match had ended goalless. The Spaniards' protests echoed similar complaints from Portugal and Italy after they were beaten by Korea earlier in the tournament. "What happened here was robbery," said Spanish player Ivan Helguera. "The goals were completely valid." Senes Erzik, the Turkish head of FIFA's Referees' Committee, admitted errors had been made in the tournament but defended the overall performance of the match officials. "There have been one or two mistakes which is a cause of concern but overall the referees have been very well prepared for this World Cup and every match is reviewed," Erzik said in a statement read at a press conference. "But referees are only human and mistakes can be made." FIFA spokesman Keith Cooper said Erzik "did not differentiate between referees and their assistants. They work together as a team". Referee's assistant is another term for linesman. The two decisions which infuriated the Spaniards in Gwangju were when Ruben Baraja nodded into the net via a deflection off Kim Tae-Young five minutes after the interval but referee El-Ghandour had already blown for shirt tugging. Fernando Morientes then also headed home two minutes into extra-time from a Joaquin cross, yet assistant referee Michael Ragoonath of Trinidad and Tobago had flagged for a goalkick. Television replays showed the ball remained in play. The FIFA spokesman said the reason for that decision was confidential as it was contained in the referee's report. Cooper said Spain had not lodged an official complaint about the refereeing in the quarter-final match. "Errors are made, by players, by coaches and by referees and linesmen," said South Korean coach, Dutchman Guus Hiddink. "The losing team should look in the mirror, not look to external circumstances." Italy has suggested there might have been a conspiracy to oust them. Eliminated 2-1 by South Korea, Italy had five goals disallowed during the tournament, including one against the Koreans, mainly for questionable offside calls. Video replays showed some of the goals were valid. Cooper said video replays to help referees decide on contentious incidents were "not on the agenda at the moment". "It's an old chestnut," Cooper said Sunday. "They [video replays] have been discussed on many, many occasions. Suffice to say that at the moment it is not on the agenda." Cooper left the door open for technology to eventually creep into the game, but only on a limited basis. "No doubt as technology moves on, the pressure for adopting some kind of video technology will increase," he said. "If any kind of technology were to be introduced it would be solely for adjudging whether the ball has crossed the line between the goalpost and under the crossbar... whether a goal is a goal." He said using technology in other areas of the game "was not an issue at the moment". Cooper said the Referees' Committee was "open to every suggestion, especially those coming from the FIFA president that may lead to an improvement in referees". In an unusual move, FIFA President Sepp Blatter has twice openly criticised the officiating in this World Cup. He has hinted that referees should only be selected from major football- playing countries. Blatter said on Saturday that he wanted a review of the entire refereeing process. "The whole system of selecting and designating referees needs to be looked at," he said. "We must return to a trio of officials of the same nationality because lack of communication has been the cause of several mistakes."
