Korea denied handball glory

Earlier this month, one hundred South Korean handball players and officials protested outside the Kuwaiti embassy, alleging undue political and economic influence in Asian handball after a controversial defeat to Kuwait for the men’s team. For the Koreans, it is not the first time though they have been the victims of contentious decisions in Asian handball.

The Korean Handball Federation, along with their Japanese counterparts, are submitting a letter of protest to the International Olympic Committee over the performance of two Jordanian referees in an important Olympic Games 2008 qualification match between the Korean and Kuwaiti men’s teams.

The two handball federations allege continuing undue influence by the Kuwaiti head of the Asian Handball Federation (AHF) as the reason for the defeat.

Trying to submit a letter of protest to the Kuwaiti embassy in Seoul after the match, Korean Handball Federation Vice President Kim Jin-soo claimed that “Kuwait’s petrodollars are destroying Asian handball,” reports English language edition of The Chosun Ilbo.

“We have repeatedly protested to IHF for the cases of wrong decisions. But they snubbed our claims, persisting their wrongdoings,” an anonymous Korean handball official told The Korea Times.

Korean radio station, KBS World Radio, reports that the Japanese and Korean handball federations are so dissatisfied with the current situation in the AHF, they plan to request that at next year’s Asian men’s handball championships, separate tournaments are held for East and West Asia, with the winners to play-off in a third country for the title.

Impartial German referees rejected

At the 2006 Asian Games in Doha, the Koreans felt aggrieved by the performance of referees in their matches against Kuwait and Qatar, officiated by Qatari and Kuwaiti officials respectively.

This time, two Germans were scheduled by the IHF to officiate at the match in the interests of impartiality. However, the AHF was under no obligation to accept these recommendations, and the two Germans were swapped for Jordanians at the last minute.

Such was the general dissatisfaction with the Jordanian referees’ performance, an IHF official warned the referees over their conduct at half time.

The match ended to jeers by the mainly Japanese crowd, and meant that Korea will have to enter a play-off with other national teams from across the world to ensure a place in Beijing. Kuwait has now qualified for the Games.

AHF head has friends in high places

AHF head, Kuwaiti prince, Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah, is unlikely to feel too threatened by the protest however.

The sheikh, who is the half-cousin of the Kuwaiti Prime Minister and nephew of the Kuwaiti Emir is rumoured to have strong ties with the IHF president, Hassan Moustafa, who he is believed to have been key to Moustafa’s presidential bid. The sheikh is also head of the Olympic Council for Asia.

His ties at the IHF were already strong before Moustafa’s election. Editor of teamhandballnews.com, John Ryan, believes that the IHF’s reliance upon the AHF for support could mean Korea’s complaints are swept under the table.

Ryan tells Play the Game. “Last spring at the IHF Congress, the AHF was aligned with the EHF and CAHB on several issues, but decided to break with that alliance, saving the IHF on some key governance issues. Rumour and speculation is that this break in alliance is one reason why it appears the IHF is not aggressively pursuing this issue.”

Neither the AHF nor the IHF have published a response to the allegations levelled by the Koreans. Play the Game has contacted the AHF for a response to the allegations by the Koreans, but no statement has yet been forthcoming.