Three months after the controversial Men’s Olympic Qualification Match between Kuwait and South Korea, the International Handball Federation has responded with an official statement addressing the match and media reports, such as the one previously written at handball.world.com. http://www.handball-welt.de/o.red.c/news.php?GID=1&auswahl=11833

The official statement confirms many of the elements previously reported including the questionable replacement of the experienced German referees with inexperienced Jordanian referees just prior to the start of the match, as well as the on court intervention of the IHF representative, Alexander Kozhukov, during the match to reprimand the referees.

The statement indicates that the match was discussed at an IHF Executive Committee meeting in September and will be further addressed by the IHF Council in Paris on 17-18 Dec, just after the completion of the World Championships. Until that meeting the IHF will make no further pronouncement.

Additionally, the statement emphatically states that the IOC is not considering the removal of Handball from the Olympic program and that this controversy is one of the reasons why the IHF should retain organizational control of handball qualification events.

IHF Official Statement: http://www.ihf.info/front_content.php?idcat=218&idart=968