FIFA calls for calm after night of the long e-mails

FIFA communications director Keith Cooper refused to get drawn into further debate on the game at a news conference.

"The whole situation with Italy versus Korea is so overheated, I have no intention of commenting to escalate it," he said. "Our intention is to calm things down."

FIFA's computer system crashed because of all the e-mails sent from Italy which landed during the Japanese night.

In an interview with a leading Italian newspaper, FIFA president Sepp Blatter denied media allegations that the world governing body had been part of a plot to oust Italy in favour of the Koreans, calling on Italy to show dignity in defeat.

But Blatter took the unusual step of launching a fierce attack on officials at the finals in Korea and Japan, calling the linesmen "a disaster". He told La Gazzetta dello Sport that he would demand changes in the way referees were selected in future.

In public, the World Cup referees are saying that they welcome any new ideas but privately they are frustrated by the attack in the middle of the tournament, FIFA sources said.

In the Korean clash in Taejon, Italy had a goal disallowed for offside and Francesco Totti was controversially sent off by Ecuadorian referee Byron Moreno.

Edgardo Codesal, a member of FIFA's Referees Committee, told the news conference that the Italians were partly right that they were out because of refereeing but he said referees made mistakes like players and coaches.

"Part of the comments are right," said the Mexican official. "But we need to be more human with referees. Referees are human beings. I know very well that it is almost impossible to see everything."

Codesal knows all about controversy. When he took charge of the 1990 World Cup final between Argentina and Germany, he made history by sending off two Argentines, the first dismissals in a final.

He backed Blatter's view that referees should be chosen on ability rather than nationality even if that meant more than one referee from each country at a World Cup.

"It could be one solution to have more than one referee from one country. We need to have the most qualified referees."