5 of the Darkest moments in World cup history

#3 South Korea’s run to the semi-finals (2002)

Was the referee biased?

Before the 2018 World cup came along, the 2002 edition co-hosted by Japan & South Korea held the tag for the tournament of the underdogs. Host nation South Korea and European underdogs Turkey made it to the semis while Senegal dumped out reigning World and European champions France in the first round itself.

In a fairytale run, the South Koreans beat Portugal, Italy and Spain on their way to the semi-finals, yet instead of being remembered as a result of passion and guts, poor refereeing hogged all the headlines.

The Italians especially were on the wrong end of some poor decisions by the Ecuadorian referee Byron Moreno, who since has spent time in jail for drug trafficking. The game went into extra time after Christian Vieri’s goal had been cancelled out by Seol Ki-hyeon.

It was in extra time that a series of poor decisions were witnessed. First Damiano Tommasi’s legitimate goal was ruled out for offside, followed by a second yellow card to Totti for alleged diving which the replays confirmed to be the wrong decision.

Adding salt to injury, Korea’s Ahn Jung-hwan scored three minutes from time which sent the Italians crashing. The same trend continued during the quarter-final clash as Spain had two legitimate goals ruled out.

The media alleged that South Korea’s favourable decisions were knowingly orchestrated by FIFA in order to keep the host nation in the tournament and pocket the riches.

Whatever the amount of moaning, no one can take the shine of South Korea’s greatest world cup campaign to date.