Asian Handball Qualification Will be Replayed
By Kang Seung-woo
Staff Reporter
The final rounds of the Asian handball qualification tournaments for both men and women for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, tarnished by controversial judgments, will be replayed before the end of January 2008, the International Handball Federation (IHF) announced Monday.
It will also decide the details of the tournaments including the host country within three days.
``We have come to a positive conclusion for the sport of handball, which follows on from the huge success of the Women's World Championship in Paris,'' IHF president Hassan Moustafa said.
With the replay, South Korea's men's squad can set their eyes on capturing a trip to Beijing again.
At the qualifying rounds, Koreans fell to Kuwait due to questionable judgments by referees allegedly because the Asian Handball Federation (AHF) is headed by Kuwait's Sheikh Ahmad al-Fahd al-Sabah.
After the game, members of the Korea Handball Federation (KHF) and its players protested in front of the Kuwaiti Embassy in Seoul, and the Korean Olympic Committee (KOC) also sent out letters of complaint to the IHF and the International Olympic Committee (IOC), asking for a thorough investigation of the case.