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TOKYO: Japan has offered to host new Asian handball qualifying
rounds for the Beijing Olympics after the results from the original
contests were nullified due to dubious refereeing, an official said
Friday.
“We have informed the inter-national
federation that Japan are prepared to host the qualifiers,” Japan
Handball Association Vice-President Noriyuki Ichihara said.
He added that the men’s round could be held in
Tokyo from January 25 to 31 and that the women’s round could be
held in Japan if Kazakhstan will not host it again.
The International Handball Federation last month
declared the original results invalid due to bad referee calls and
ordered the Asian qualifying rounds to be held again.
Kuwait, which presided over the Asian Handball
Federation, won all of their four matches in the men’s round in
Japan in September and qualified for the Olympics.
But the matches drew protests that referees from
Middle East nations had showed favoritism towards Kuwait.
In the women’s round in Kazakhstan in August,
the home side won a berth in the Olympics but their opponents
accused local referees of making calls in their favor.
The South Korean handball association edited
footage of the Korea-Kuwait matches to show the bad calls and sent
the video to 160 International Handball Federation member nations,
according to Korean media reports.
With the help of the South Korean Olympic
Committee, the association also filed complaints with the
International Olympic Committee.
The IOC announced later that they would take
action to exclude handball from the Olympics if such misconduct
continued, the reports said.
Ichihara said the Asian Handball Federation had
infor-med Japan on short notice that they would hold an executive
board meeting on Saturday.
“It is physically impossible for Japan to
attend as we are informed about the meeting all of a sudden,” he
said. “We don’t know what is on the agenda either.”
-- AFP
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