Shame on Kuwait!

Oil Money Severely Taints Sports

It is a great shame on Kuwaiti prince Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah who is heading the Asian Handball Federation. We urge the Kuwaiti to leave the sports arena for good by holding him responsible for masterminding the recent dirty and fraudulent win of Kuwait over the Korean team in one of the recent preliminary matches for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Due to obviously partial refereeing, both the men and women handball teams of Korea, regarded as world-class teams, failed to garner tickets for the Olympics, which went to Kuwait and Kazakhstan.

Although the Korean teams still hope to win a place at the Olympics through remaining qualifying matches of the International Handball Federation (IHF), they are now in despair and furious over Kuwait’s mean attempt to buy victory with oil money.

In the men’s match Sept. 1, unfair decisions were made by referees appointed by the AHF leader who is also president of Olympic Council of Asia. The man exercises considerable influence in the International Handball Federation (IHF). The referees handled the match in an extremely unfair manner, with repeated false and biased judgments, clearly showing favoritism for the Kuwaiti team.

Just days ago in the women’s preliminary in Kazakhstan, the Korean women’s team was also defeated through unfair and partial decisions by the referees, with their rightful protests being repeatedly ignored. Korea has an unpleasant memory of the Asian Games in Doha, where it lost to the host country Qatar, as the result of partial judgments by referees. The Qatar team later admitted that it had been an unfair match and suggested they could play a re-match if Korea was willing.

Korea Olympic Committee (KOC) President Kim Jung-kil sent a letter of protest to the AHF president, calling on the organization to put an end to their unfair and unsportsmanlike conduct, which has already caused much criticism and concern. He threatened to bring the issue to the International Olympic Committee. ``As this is a matter correlated to the Olympic Games next year, I am also referring it to the President of the International Olympic Committee,’’ he said. The KOC’s action is timely and appropriate given the seriousness of the problem.

Members of the Korea Handball Federation (KHF) visited the Kuwait Embassy in Seoul to protest the questionable calls but the embassy declined to accept the protest letter, invoking further wrath. KHF officials and their Japanese counterparts have decided to file a suit against the AHF with the IOC.

Surprisingly enough, the AHF totally ignored the direction from IHF for naming German referees for the Korea-Kuwait match to guarantee fairness, selecting Jordanians instead.

The Kuwaiti prince has dominated the AHF for the past 25 years as its president. Now he must recognize that the repeated dirty attempts to manipulate matches will only severely tarnish the image of Kuwait in the international community. Above all, it is an extreme shame on himself. Buying games with tainted oil money is a slap in the face to the years-long efforts of young handball players. We urge him to feel a deep sense of guilt and shame and step down from the post immediately.