10 Terrible Refereeing Decisions That Changed World Cup Games

As co-hosts of the 2002 World Cup, South Korea's path to the semi-finals was wrought with controversy. Referees seemed to be favouring the host nation at every opportunity and a lot of questionable decisions were going their way. Nowhere was this more evident than in the team's quarter final clash with Spain.

The game finished 0-0 and was eventually decided on penalties, with South Korea winning 5-3, but many spectators argued that the Spanish should have won the match in regular time. In the second half, Rubén Baraja scored what seemed to be a perfectly legitimate goal from a corner, but the ref ruled it out.

Spanish hearts would break once more in the first half of extra-time, when Fernando Morientes again seemed to score a perfectly legal goal, which would have been the 'Golden Goal' to end the game in Spain's favour, but the ref disallowed the strike and the game petered out to a draw. After the match, referee Gamal Al-Ghandour was widely vilified by the media and Spanish players, and never appeared at a major tournament again.