By Kim Tong-hyung
Staff Reporter
The Asian Handball Federation (AHF) is threatening to make an appeal to an arbitration body over the replay of the Asian Olympic qualifiers scheduled next week in Japan, the Kyodo News reported Sunday.
Quoting an unnamed Japanese sports official, the news agency reported that the AHF will bring the matter to the Court of Arbitration in Sport if the replays will be staged between only Japan and South Korea as endorsed by the International Handball Federation (IHF).
On Friday, the IHF notified the Japan Handball Association (JHA) of its decision to hold the matches between the two countries on Jan. 29 and 30 at Yoyogi National Gymnasium in Tokyo.
The IHF recently decided to host a replay of the qualification tournaments after South Korea protested it was robbed a victory in the hands of Kuwait in the original tournament last September.
However, the AHF maintained that there were no problems with the original tournament and directed its member countries not to participate in the Tokyo replay of the tournament, although, South Korea and Japan apparently couldn't care less.
At the men's tournament last September, Kuwait won a controversial match against South Korea 28-20 to punch its ticket to Beijing. This meant the Koreans would have to finish first or second in a qualification tournament against France and Croatia to secure an Olympic berth.
Korean handball officials have been accusing AHF President Sheikh Ahmed Al Fahad Al Sabah, who also heads the Kuwaiti federation, of determining the fate of the match before it started by allegedly getting involved in the switching of referees just hours before game time.
German referees, Frank Lemme and Bernd Ullrich, had been scheduled to officiate the match, but were replaced by Jordanians Jaafar Alshobaki and Nasr Hirzallah just three hours before it started.
thkim@koreatimes.co.kr
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