¡¡¡¡SEOUL, June 30 (Xinhuanet) -- The 2002 World Cup, distinguished from previous events as it marked both the first time in the competition's 72-year history that it was held in Asia and co-hosted by two nations, will be remembered for thrilling giantkilling, poor refereeing and ticket fiasco.

¡¡¡¡Cup of Shocks

¡¡¡¡Despite some normality restored by Brazil when they clinched their fifth World Cup title with a convincing unbeaten run of seven matches, the 2002 tournament will go down the history as themost unpredictable World Cup, or the "Cup of Shocks".

¡¡¡¡Newcomers Senegal set a sparkling example by downing holders France 1-0 in their first ever World Cup match. The upset by the Africans meant the tournament started with a little piece of magic,portending anything was possible at the World Cup.

¡¡¡¡Then France, fellow pre-tournament favorites Argentina and highly-talented Portugal were all sensationally eliminated in the group stage.

¡¡¡¡It was, however, far from the ending as co-hosts South Korea, who have never won a single game in previous five World Cup appearances, managed a giant-killing after another en route to thesemi-finals where they lost 1-0 to Germany. Portugal, Italy and Spain all fell at the hands of the Guus Hiddink's side.

¡¡¡¡Turkey, making their first World Cup appearance after 48 years,have also reached the last four after beating Senegal in the quarter-finals. They were only tamed by the star-studded Brazilian side.

¡¡¡¡No one expected it when 32 soccer teams arrived in South Korea and Japan one month ago. Everyone knew that soccer is an unpredictable game, and that every World Cup produced upsets. But everyone also knew that once a World Cup reaches the second round,the eternal forces of nature -- Italy's defence, Brazil's attack--begin to assert themselves and the tournament resume its customaryrhythms.

¡¡¡¡That hasn't happened this time, not by a long shot, and there are many of those still hanging around in the quarter-finals. Brazil, England, Germany and Spain somehow made it to the final eight.

¡¡¡¡In the past two World Cups, however, all the quarter-finalists were from Europe or South America. This time, teams from Asia, Africa and North America found their way into the quarter-final line-up.

¡¡¡¡It indicated nothing but the shrink of the gap in quality between underdogs and superpowers.

¡¡¡¡FIFA president Sepp Blatter pointed out that the 2002 World Cupshowed the balance of power in world soccer was starting to change.

¡¡¡¡"There is no more weak team. The gap between the traditional favorites and newcomers is drawing together," Blatter said after the first round of the World Cup.

¡¡¡¡Disputable Refereeing

¡¡¡¡Never has a World Cup like this aroused so much dispute and criticism.

¡¡¡¡Three-times world champions Italy could feel that they were theNo. 1 victim of unfair refereeing decisions. They had four goals disallowed in group matches, with some apparently valid on video replays.

¡¡¡¡But what made the "Azzurri" more outraged was a series of questionable refereeing in the second round clash against South Korea. An early penalty, a red card and a disallowed goal were among the decisions called against them.

¡¡¡¡In the quarter-final between South Korea and Spain, referee Gamal Ghandour made dubious judgment for disallowing a Spanish goal for shirt-pulling. In extra time a golden goal for Spain wasalso controversially disallowed when linesman Michael Rangoonath signaled that Spain's Joaquin had allowed the ball to cross over the line.

¡¡¡¡The coincidence that South Korea were involved in most of questionable calls triggered overwhelming rumors of conspiracy. The furious press in those "victimized" countries bombarded FIFA in newspapers' front page, claiming they were robbed of the victory due to unfair refereeing.

¡¡¡¡Though FIFA admitted that major refereeing errors were made during the tournament, the world soccer's governing body have unreservedly dismissed talks of match-rigging conspiracy.

¡¡¡¡"Conspiracy theories crop up in all walks of life and in 99 percent of cases they are unfounded. This one is one of the 99 percent," said Keith Cooper, FIFA's Director of Communications.

¡¡¡¡Yet hysterical criticism like this is also, to some extent, understandable.

¡¡¡¡French soccer legend Michel Platini said South Korea's rocket ride from obscurity to glory had added ammunition to the critics. "I remember 1982 and 1986 when some terrible decisions went against France but there was none of the type there is now. Perhaps this is the first time the really big nations have been affected," Platini said in an interview with fifaworldcup.com, theWorld Cup's official website.

¡¡¡¡The repeated controversial incidents have also prompted FIFA toreform refereeing in order to reduce the number of disputable calls.

¡¡¡¡"A World Cup that receives the best players and teams in the world should be overseen by the best referees regardless of their nationality," said Blatter, who wants to review the way every official is chosen and assessed.

¡¡¡¡The FIFA chief has insisted on selecting referees on regional basis.

¡¡¡¡"I would like to see the referees and assistants in threesomes working together well before the World Cup. I would also like to see the refereeing organization be more open and work with players,ex-players and coaches," said the 66-year-old Swiss.

¡¡¡¡Ticket Fiasco

¡¡¡¡The World Cup has been plagued and overshadowed by ticket fiasco from the outset till the end.

¡¡¡¡Byrom Inc., FIFA's ticketing agent in charge of printing and distributing tickets, encountered technical problems when it triedto implement a highly sophisticated system where individual ticketholders' names were attached to tickets in an attempt to prevent black market resale. A week before the opening match, hundreds ofthousands of tickets had still not reached their buyers.

¡¡¡¡The ticket problems resulted in large portions of empty stadiumseats in first-round matches and thus left local organizing committees KOWOC and JOWOC, FIFA and Byrom all pointing fingers ateach other.

¡¡¡¡KOWOC and JOWOC, who were forced to sell the remaining tickets at the last minute by telephone after on-line sales were seriouslyhampered by technical glitches, blamed Byrom for failing to sell tickets abroad and keeping the organizers in the dark about overseas returned tickets.

¡¡¡¡But FIFA defended its ticketing policy and attributed ticket fiasco to delays in submission of the full data on the 20 World Cup stadiums by KOWOC and JOWOC.

¡¡¡¡"FIFA contractually established with the two local organizing committees that the final detailed stadium plans must be deliveredto Byrom by October 15 2001," David Will, chairman of FIFA's Ticketing Sub-committee, said in a statement. "However, the information required was not confirmed until March 2002."

¡¡¡¡Meanwhile, the disappointing attendance was also affected by the low turnout of local fans, especially in South Korea, who wereput off by the price of tickets, which cost more than 128,000 won (about 100 US dollars) for second round matches, a tenth of the mean income for South Korean workers.

¡¡¡¡"At the start of the World Cup, approximately 20 percent of thetotal ticketing inventory remained unsold. This had nothing to dowith the ticketing system but was simply due to under-demand," Will added. Enditem

    --By Sportswriter Gao Peng