Gamal Al-Ghandour is not easy to locate. Egypt is a giant country, and the referee of the controversial South Korea-Spain match of the World Cup 2002 (0-0 and defeat on penalties) is a very popular and requested face. And not only because of those mistakes that prevented our team from reaching the semi-finals of the Asian event. Al-Ghandour and the journalist have known each other for years - the day after the game I interviewed him at Narita airport (Tokyo). There is confidence and, once put into action, the former Egyptian referee has no problem talking about what he considers "excellent refereeing". So, he repeats it to us 20 years later. Two decades are celebrated on 22 June. 20 years that are remembered with rage here, since Spain, led by Jose Antonio Camacho, fell just short of the top four in the Korean/Japanese World Cup.
After a few calls, we found Gamal in a hotel in Cairo, where he was attending a commitment from his current occupation as a commentator for BeIn Sports. "The one in Korea - he tells us - was my second World Cup, after refereeing three games in France 98. And I think that in 2002 I had a better performance, always clarifying the following: I speak of my own decisions, of what I decided, without taking responsibility for my assistants.” The architects of that outrage were the Ugandan assistant Ali Tomusange and the main artist, the one who signalled for goal kick after Joaquin's cross, the legendary Michael Ragoonath, from Trinidad and Tobago. "The truth is that the performance of the two assistants was disastrous", shoots Al-Ghandour. “The only debatable play was Morientes' goal”. Already in extra time (0-0), in the second minute, the most scandalous play came. The disallowed goal for Morientes, which would have led to the Spanish victory, as Ragoonath considered that Joaquin's ball had gone off the field. "The mistakes of my assistants should not be counted towards my performance," Gamal insists. Not everything was there. There were three very dubious offsides by Joaquin (minute 99), Morientes (110') and Mendieta (113') - the first two had been left alone against the goalkeeper - that ended with one last decision: the extra time ends in 120', when Spain was about to take a corner. Since then, Ghandour has not spoken or heard from his assistants: " I haven't heard from them again. I think the Ugandan was in the African Referees Committee, but I didn't know anything else. Curiously, two days after the game, we had a meeting with FIFA and it was agreed that my only mistake, as referee, was not to give the red card to the Spaniard [De Pedro or Mendieta, he doesn't remember] for a violent tackle when I only awarded a yellow card”.
The Spanish fans will always remember his refereeing. 20 years later, not a single Spaniard with a certain football memory will forget what, for many, was a "historic robbery". Al-Ghandour tells us: "In 2019 I visited Spain for a TV program and I think that, since then, my public image in this country changed and the Spanish could see that I was not wrong and that the mistakes were clearly made by my assistants. I think the perception of La Roja fans changed after that program." Al-Ghandour refers to the documentary series 'The Others', with Antoni Daimiel, which Movistar broadcasted in 2019. "I was with Lopez Nieto - the Spanish referee in the 2002 World Cup - and we explained the mistakes that were made in that game. We discussed all the controversial actions and people are no longer against me... or at least I think so. In fact, in that same World Cup, in the Spain-Paraguay match, I gave them a penalty, and nobody remembers that... but only everything that happened against Korea. It didn't look like a penalty and only I saw it. The images later showed that it was a penalty against Raul," says Gamal. Spain won 3-1 and that penalty was the last Spanish goal (Hierro). "The Spanish - says Al-Ghandour - cannot blame me for that defeat against Korea, because, before the end of the game, they had several clear chances. They could have won before reaching the penalty shoot-out. In a game only the referee is judged, but sometimes we cannot support the decisions of our assistants. I confirm myself: I did an excellent refereeing. In fact, FIFA gave me a score of 8.7 out of 10 that day. Analyzing the plays - he continues -, for me there is only one debatable decision and that is the disallowed goal, since Joaquin's cross did not leave the field. That is the main point of discussion". It was so serious that, since that game, FIFA modified the criteria in the appointment of the refereeing trios. Since then, the three referees, plus the fourth official, are usually from the same country to facilitate communication and rapport between them and to avoid that explosive mixture of an Egyptian, an Ugandan and a Trinidadian, which cost Spain their elimination. "Of course, with VAR, there would have been no mistake and perhaps Spain would have reached the semi-finals," Gamal points out. Al-Ghandour keeps the shirt from that match. Marca asked him to show it in a photograph, but Gamal thought it was... too much: "I'm proud of what I did, personally, in that match, but I don't want to stir up the susceptibility of the Spanish fans, who can start to remember it again on the networks", he indicates from Cairo with some prudence.
The cover of Marca the day after that 22 June 2002 headlined "It's gross", and it was not only because of the refereeing suffered by Camacho's men. Let us remember that Spain played against one of the hosts, Hiddink's Korea, which reached its historical World Cup peak. Days before, the Koreans had eliminated Italy in the round of 16 with another controversial refereeing by Ecuadorian Byron Moreno (2-1 in extra time). In 2015, within the framework of the investigation by the United States Department of Justice into FIFA for multiple corruption issues, that match, Korea-Spain, returned to the center of public attention as various charges were involved in its organization exposed by corruption. It has nothing to do with what happened on the field, surely, but it is one more reason for controversy. A controversy that does not end 20 years later. And if not, watch again... the summary of that game.
Interestingly, the former Egyptian referee claims to be a lover of Spain: "It's a shame that this happened to me, because both I and my family love Spain. My children are great fans of Real Madrid and they have enjoyed La Decimocuarta a lot. It makes me sad because even when it was the final of the Nations League, between Spain and France, and there was a refereeing error that led to Mbappe's goal, the Spanish, on social networks, said that it was my fault, that I was in the VAR [laughs]". Gamal continues the story: "The proof that my refereeing was not so bad is that, during the match, the La Roja players did not protest me, but only my assistants. They all went against them, not against me. Nobody claimed anything from me during the game. One more proof that I did a good performance," the Egyptian proudly points out, 20 years after that controversy. And so, this story ends, with an Al-Ghandour who, thanks to his refereeing career, which is not based on this game obviously, was a star when he refereed in the 1998 and 2002 World Cups and still is today. Not surprisingly, in refereeing circles in Africa he is considered one of the best on the continent in all their history. At Euro 2000, and not being European, he managed two group stage matches in Belgium and the Netherlands. After retiring from refereeing, he was the referee commissioner of the Egyptian Federation on several occasions, although he left it a few months ago due to discrepancies with the leadership. Currently, he is one of the star commentators of BeIn Sports, at the Egyptian level. A familiar face... and recognized.
Source: Marca