The headline "This World Cup is repugnant" leapt off the front page Spanish newspaper La Marca on Sunday, summing up the country's collective rage at their controversial World Cup elimination by South Korea.

The headline was accompanied by the picture of a red-faced Ivan Helguera arguing with Egyptian referee Gamal Ghandour, and it reflected the hostile reaction to the nature of the result by the Spanish papers.

The Sunday papers did not back down from the fury shown by the media yesterday, and it seems Mr Ghandour would be a wise man to postpone any holidays to Spain he may have planned

As usual the Madrid-based Marca and AS led the assault.

After the dramatic front page, Marca doesn't let up on the inside pages, dedicating 21 pages and a photo pull-out to the defeat it considers to be "The Robbery of the Century".

"Spain - Korea; another example of the manipulation of the tournament," the newspaper concluded.

"The Egyptian and his linesmen, one from Uganda and the other from Trinidad enter the blackest history of World Cup refereeing."

"Italy were right - It's a rotten world," howled AS on their front cover, railing against FIFA corruption and forgetting Angel Maria Villar, the president of the Spanish FA (RFEF), was one of Sepp Blatter's most loyal supporters.

"History repeats itself," they said of the quarter-final hurdle that Spain failed to cross for the fourth time. They country has now also fallen in the knockout stage five times in the last six World Cups.

Even the Barcelona based papers, normally less prone to invoking patriotic fervour, were incensed.

"Hands up! - a robbery with a flag," say El Mundo Deportivo, who considered the linesmen rather than the referee to be the guilty parties.

As in the other papers they dedicated a page to analysing the errors, using the headline "How the Spain team were massacred."

However, El Mundo Deportivo did attempt to find some perspective and pointed out Spain's continual inability to deliver on the big occasion, explaining, "The team didn't make the best of its talent and have always they lost in the quarter-finals."

However, Diario Sport was also moved to rage: "What a robbery," alongside a photo of Ghandour,

"And what bad luck," they continue with another image of the injured Joaquin hitting his penalty at a grateful Lee Won Jae in the shoot-out.

The daily papers were also indignant about Spain's exit, but because of the EU summit in Sevilla, Camacho and his boys have to share the front page with Aznar, Blair and company.

"Controversy and disappointment in Spain's goodbye," headlined ABC.

La Razon hurled the headline "A scandalous referee puts Spain out of the World Cup" across half their front page

The normally level-headed El Pais found a headline which perhaps said it best: "The referee makes Spain cry."

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