BIGMOUTH COMMENT

Is all South Korea's euphoria suddenly invalidated by the stench of alleged corruption that has since pervaded the tournament? Well, not for me: I've been grumpily telling everyone I meet that this kettle o'fish has been tampered with at the edges ever since I bemusedly watched the Portugal-Korea group match, with its entirely bogus yet result-determining second red card. I then must have been the only Brit around here who felt that the so-called 'whinging Italians' actually had a good case in round 2. Now, after the inverted-Spanish-practices fiasco, I smile as the world's hacks, who only hours earlier were raging against the Italians' sour grapes epidemic, suddenly decide that the whole tourney is a fixed farce. It seems there is nothing in the world as outraged as a naïf whose innocence has been suddenly defiled. Has everyone forgotten the pro-England bias of the '66 competition, or the outrageous institutional favouritism towards Brazil in 1970, or the blatant junta-inspired rig that was Mondiale 78? This time, I suspect, the issues have simply been somewhat more obvious. What did people expect from a dollar-strewn carnival organised by FIFA, the only organisation in the world to rival the IOC for incompetence and corruption? Didn't the scandalous FIFA congress held only weeks ago give enough cause for concern in itself? And given that this tournament is being held in a region known for its, um, unorthodox practices and corporate shenanigans, why should anyone be surprised at what has apparently occurred? The combination of local big business interests, third world officialdom and an umbrella organisation steeped in wrongdoing makes the outcomes we have seen all but inevitable, even if saying so makes me sound like a crusty Euro-centric imperialist. Best do what I did: take it all as a given, and enjoy the maddened crowds and feverish atmosphere nonetheless. But if Korea do make the final - or, indeed, the Germans, historical cheats of epic proportions in their own right - let us hope the judgment from Ronaldo and co. is severe. (At this point, your correspondent turns a blind eye to the ham-acting of Rivaldo, which we must now surely see is rather small beer compared to what might have been going on off-camera.)