Spanish fury at match officials (Allsport)

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The World Cup is a fix, the referees are bent and we should all go home now and award the trophy to the Red Army of South Korea on the basis that officials will not allow anyone else to win.

What nonsense.

Keith Cooper, FIFA's Director of Communications, branded the accusations of a conspiracy in favour of South Korea as “pathetic” and how right he is.

It cannot be denied that the co-hosts have surfed a tidal wave of apparently favourable decisions from referees and their assistants alike on their way to Tuesday's remarkable semi-final berth.

But to suggest the officials have collaborated to come up with some weird and wonderful formula that only favours the home nation is an insult to all the men in black at the tournament.

It is also a slight on all the officials left behind at home. Each official on duty in the Far East represents thousands of whistle blowers on each and every domestic circuit.

And the worst accusation imaginable that can be made against any one of them, or any official in any sport for that matter, is that they are cheats – that they deliberately flout the rules of their sport and forget fair play.

Some of the officials at the World Cup have performed poorly – but don't tell me they walk on to a pitch with the intention of only letting one side win.

The impartiality of every referee is just not up for debate.

If the referees are guilty of blatant cheating, then can't we levy the same accusation at Italian striker Christian Vieri?

The 400,000 Italians who bombarded FIFA's website after their exit to South Korea accusing the referees of blatant bias, conveniently forgot to mention how Vieri missed an absolute sitter in the final seconds against the co-hosts that would have sent them spinning out.

Does the conspiracy theory extend to Vieri? Did he take a bung before the match?

Of course he didn't - the idea is absolute rubbish.

If there's a conspiracy, let's see the evidence. Lets see it in black and white, where's the proof?

It that was the case, why did three of the strongest leagues in Europe - the Premiership and the Spanish and Italian leagues - only have one assistant referee, Englishman Phil Sharpe, represent them at the finals?

This is, undoubtedly, a mess of FIFA's own making. Referees are indeed only human and they do make mistakes, even more so when they do not have the experience to cope with the showpiece games.

But that's all they are guilty of, even the Trinidad official Michael Ragoonath, who incorrectly denied the Spanish a chance on goal by ruling the ball had run out of play against the South Koreans.

It was a terrible decision.

But every referee, from time to time, does make them. Pure and simple.

There's nothing more sinister than that.