BANGKOK, Jan 25: A storm has blown up in handball, plunging the sport into unprecedented chaos six months out from the Olympics.

Allegations of flagrant bias by Middle Eastern referees have sent the sport’s two biggest bodies — the International Handball Federation (IHF) and the Asian Handball Federation (AHF) — on a potentially explosive collision course.

Critics allege the fixing of a key match by means of a late switch of officials last September in the qualifying tournament in Japan where the Kuwaiti men’s team won a place at the Beijing Olympics. The claims are denied by the AHF.

Kuwait beat both Japan and South Korea in the five-nation qualifying event which also featured Qatar and the UAE.

In December, after appeals and protests by the Japanese and Koreans, the IHF ordered the disputed tournament, both men’s and women’s, to be replayed by the end of this month.

But influential Kuwaiti prince Sheikh Ahmed Al-Fahad Al-Sabah, long-serving president of the Kuwait-based AHF and head of the Olympic Council of Asia, has refused to sanction the replays and the AHF has threatened to penalise any Asian country taking part.

Last week the UAE decided to join Kuwait, Qatar and Kazakhstan, winner of the women’s event, in skipping the replays and it looks clear that only Japan and South Korea will show up for the tournament now set for Tokyo on Jan 29-30.

Meanwhile, Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda joined the debate a couple of days ago and backed Japanese handball chiefs.

“In sports, it’s important to have fair rules and judgements. If that’s prevented, then Japan must insist on what it has to insist on,” he told parliament when asked about the heated handball bust-up.

Sheikh Ahmed has been vilified by the South Korean media, which claims Kuwait has undue influence over the federation.

“Sheikh Ahmed must recognise that the repeated dirty attempts to manipulate matches will severely tarnish the image of Kuwait,” the Korea Times said in a strongly-worded editorial after the Olympic qualifiers.

The handball federations of Japan and South Korea claim they have evidence proving the AHF switched German referees for Jordanian match officials, who they say repeatedly ruled in favour of Kuwait.

The two federations staged a protest outside the Kuwaiti Embassy in Seoul last year and sent DVDs highlighting questionable decisions by Gulf referees — dubbed ‘The whistle of the Middle East’ — to the International Olympic Committee and the IHF’s 160 member countries.

Angered by the IHF’s support for the replays, the AHF this week threatened to lodge an appeal with the Court of Arbitration for Sport. In an interview with Reuters this week, Roshan Anand, AHF secretary-general, poured scorn on the allegations of cheating, suggesting that Japan and South Korea were sore losers.

“These complaints came only from the losers,” Anand said.

“Everyone wants to win and everyone complains when they are the losing team. The judging was as normal.”

He denied there was a switch of referees moments before Kuwait’s match with South Korea, which Kuwait won 28-20, and said the Gulf team were the rightful winners.

“The officials were not replaced. Kuwait has qualified for the Olympics,” he added. “They are the representatives of Asia and that is that.”

Oh No-kyun, who teaches sports diplomacy at South Korea’s Chung Cheong University, said political influence weighed heavy on sport and national federations needed to push for change.

“The reality is that politics underlines sports,” he told the Yonhap news agency when asked about the handball standoff.

“We have no choice but to step up our appeals to international organisations to correct injustices.”—Reuters