Do you believe there was a conspiracy against Italy at the 2002 World Cup?

also because the tournament was f7cked with...IMO....it paved the way for Brazil to win an easy 5th trophy...that was probably Brazil's easiest WC to win after all the major players went out in the earlier group rounds and early KO rounds....Germany was a joke in 2002 compared to now and Brazil handled them in the final accordingly

brazil had an easy group with the mighty Costa Rica and China!!.....Turkey was really the only threat...Remember this was 2002 so Costa Rica was even more shit then and China about the same.

then in the KO's Brazil faces an mediocre Belgium team in the round of 16 ( remember this was 2002 not belgium like today ).....then a quality England squad....followed in the semis playing again with Turkey who were solid but nothing more...and the final against an average german team

Brazil didn't break a sweat

 

Yep. If it were truly a conspiracy against Italy then Vieri and Maldini were in on it.

 

vieri choking and maldini has no relevance on the fact that south korea received a lot of gifts and favoritism throughout the tournament...it wasn't a conspiracy against just Italy but more of conspiracy to make sure south korea did well on home soil

people mention vieri choking as if to make it seem that match was totally in Italy's hands but we all know that even a corrupt referee can only do so much to tip the balance in favor without it being totally obvious

when a ref is corrupt both the ref and party influencing him know the ref can't guarantee a result they want.....but he could do many things controversially and non controversially to help that result

vieri and maldini doesn't negate the fact the byron moreno did pretty much everything he could do to make sure the south koreans had the advantage throughout that match....and that's usually how is goes with corrupt refereeing

Portugal- South Korea in the last group game had me raising questions before. that was a pivotal game. and this game made me nervous about playing south korea in the round of 16 next

then later there were too many controversial things against Italy that match to have me believe otherwise

and the Spain QF game after that was the final nail in the coffin....the refs were compromised

then years later byron moreno gets caught at JFK smuggling over 10 pounds of Heroin????....hmmmmmmm

 

also there was a piece on HBO real sports that showed how asian gambling is creating an environment that is making it easy to influence a referee to help a result because referees are an easy target. they don't make much money. especially referees from 3rd world countries.

and these refs that get into bed with the gambling guys don't know what they are in for until it's too late. they threaten the refs and even their families later on if the refs can't make good on "helping" the desired result if it happens a few matches in a row. a match here and there they can tolerate, but not 3 in a row.....also players are targeted who don't make much money to fix matches...i highly doubt this was the case with vieri and maldini

the fact that WC 2002 was in south korea made it easy to get to them back then 13 years ago.

now 13 years later it's much easier for these gambling thugs to influence any sport anywhere at anytime.

 

I agree with this. South Korea was even getting calls in their favor as early as the group stage. For example, if you look at their game against the USA they were able to equalize against us thanks to a penalty they were awarded that was completely nonexistent.

 

Hard to say, for sure he needed to get yellow card.
This red card came in 22nd minute. Usually, at least in Europe, this is not straight red card. We also need to include the fact that this is a World Cup and Joao Pinto had reputation. His foul was not harmful with direct foot (shoe bottom) like some other fouls, he just want to make "professional" foul at the central part.

Observe this foul, this is not even yellow card: 1.50 minute



Entire World Cup had only one devotion and crucial question. How to place South Korea among the last four teams. Croatia had protection against Italy just because of South Korea. Croatian fans also knew that they will lose against South Korea in the knock - out stage. First time in 21st century, first time in Asia, saddest World Cup.