Oh for fucks sake.

Did Korea fix fix the game and make Tomassi miss this one on one?

Did Korea fix this blatant Christian Vieri miss?

Did Korea cast some black magic to make Vieri miss the easiest chance of the whole tournament?

Are we also forgetting Korea missed a penalty too??

Did Korea fix this Morientes and Mendieta miss?

You can't fix a fucking world cup game of football by only paying the referee, the players would have to be in on it in order for genuine match-fixing at the highest level to be possible. Players win and lose you games, not referees.

Now I'm not saying the referee can not influence events, but in 99% of games at the top the level the outcome of that game lies in the hands of the players, and not the referee. Italy and Spain still had their destiny in their own hands if they had simply tucked away a few of their chances. And also, Korea, while playing quite violently and negatively still played some great counter attacking football.

Yes the referee is in prison now for heroin smuggling. Yes, it is possible he was given some money to make favorable decisions for the Koreans, but if Italy and Spain had simply taken the plethora of chances they had no-one would be crying conspiracy.

Nobody complains about shit refereeing if your team wins, which Italy and Spain had fucking ample opportunities to do so, even when you discount the disallowed goals. If there's any reason to dislike Korea in that tournament it's because they were proper dirty. (Not that Spain or Italy's play was much better tbd)

Furthermore, Italy's goal and Spain's two offside goals were decisions that were both made before the ball was in the net. If the referee was disallowing goals after they'd been scored I'd be more inclined to believe the conspiracists.

Moral of the story - Take your fucking chances when they come.