My colleague, Christian Ciemalla at Handball-World reports on what in my opinion could end up being the most significant Handball related news story ever. The possibility that the Asian Handball Federation and by extension the International Handball Federation may fess up to a fixed match and actually replay it is unprecedented. As a child, I remember playing “do-overs” at recess for controversial calls, but I don’t recall it ever happening in organized competition. Stay tuned for further developments and don’t be surprised if you start seeing more on this story in non handball related news outlets.
Handball-World Article: http://www.handball-welt.de/o.red.c/news.php?GID=1&auswahl=11833
Your colleague did a great job, save for a few typos:). Amazing! Based on the video footage, I must say that my reffing skills are pretty awesome. LOL.
Those "Taliban" jackass referees may have very well been patsies (let's face it, not exactly the sharpest tools in the shed…) but I sure hope that the IOC comes down very hard on the leasdership of the sport.
And, sorry to say, you cannot have a first class sport governed by third class people. You reap what you sow, I guess…
I am surprized they would be so blatant at an event that was recorded. Obviously the tapes do not lie, so someone is! I was very suspicious when I first heard they had replaced the neutral refs at the last minute. What a mess for handball! I hope they take strong action to show the IOC they will not let this go unpunished.
Or, maybe Bogdan and I can take our "awesome" reffing skills out for hire in Asia.
What dont they investigate the World Championship as well and replay the Germany-Spain and Germany-France matches? Those were scandalous too.
You know, whatever has to be investigated should be investigated. If those were scandalous (I will take your word for it, since I have not seen footage of either games), more power to them. I do think that the reason this has a better chance of being investigated is because it falls under the IOC jurisdiction. Not sure the that IHF will be willing to investigate itself, if you know what I mean…
There's poor officiating and and then there's intentially biased officiating. If the officiating for the France – Germany match had approached the level of scandal that the Kuwait – Korea match, I daresay there would have been Germans throwing bottles on the court.