Blatter rushes to defence of Korea

World Cup officials today jumped to the defence of South Korea by dismissing the conspiracy theories which claim the hosts have been given a deliberate helping hand into the semi-finals.

With seven million South Koreans expected to watch today's match against Germany, FIFA president Sepp Blatter was joined by World Cup referees and medical officials in describing allegations against the Koreans as unfair and spurious.

Stung by suggestions that South Korea had beaten Portugal, Italy and Spain only because of a plot for referees to aid their progress, Blatter released a statement "dismissing in their entirety ... the ongoing rumours". This was followed by an impassioned defence of officiating integrity from Senes Erzik, chairman of FIFA's Referees Committee, who attacked the "spurious allegations of one type of conspiracy or another" and described the verbal attacks on his referees as "unfair".

He insisted: "For referees, there are no small teams and no big ones. There are no favourites and no outsiders. We acknowledge that even the best referees officiating at this World Cup may make errors of judgment when under pressure. But, as people of integrity, they do not make errors of ethical judgment." The competition's chief medical officer Jiri Dvorak also dismissed rumours that the South Koreans, whose fitness has been amazing, might be taking banned drugs.

"Korea are a well-prepared team and it would be unjust to put their physical performance down to anything but that. They undergo the same drug testing as every other team," he said.

Rumours have been flying around ever since South Korea's controversial second-round and quarter-final wins over Italy and Spain.

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