Spanish coach joins list of World Cup referee critics

GWANGJU, South Korea -- Add Spain to the growing list of critics condemning World Cup referees.

Coach Jose Antonio Camacho was furious at the ref and linesmen for disallowing three goals Saturday before South Korea knocked Spain out of the tournament in a penalty-kick shootout following a 0-0 tie.

The Italians were the first to raise a fuss about the officiating after they lost 2-1 to Croatia, then were knocked out of the tournament in a 2-1 overtime loss to South Korea.

Italy had two late goals disallowed on questionable calls in the game against Croatia. Against the South Koreans, forward Francesco Totti received a second yellow card for what the referee thought was a dive in the penalty box in overtime, leaving the Italians short-handed.

FIFA president Sepp Blatter said some linesmen were "a disaster," and Pele, perhaps soccer's best player ever and now an ambassador for the sport, said "the level of referees is very poor, very low."

RAI, the Italian state broadcaster, wants to sue FIFA for loss of potential revenue, claiming the world body was negligent in appointing referees.

Camacho said Italy, Mexico, Portugal and the United States all were on the end of bad calls.

"We expected the officiating to be better. This was a quarterfinal match after all," Camacho said. "I'm sad because we lost unfairly."

South Korea's victory over the Italians prompted almost 400,000 irate fans to send hateful e-mails to FIFA, overloading its computer system. The co-hosts' victory over Spain will undoubtedly provoke even more angry exchanges.

Prominent referee Edgardo Codesal Mendez said there were always going to be mistakes. He said out of some 4,000 decisions in the first 56 games of the World Cup, only a handful were wrong.