ACCORDING to more than one national newspaper, we should not be supporting South Korea against the Germans tomorrow as they have cheated their way into the final.

What a load of absolute stuff and nonsense.

Of course they have had the rub of the green, not least with the shocking decision that Joaquin had taken the ball over the line for Spain on Saturday before crossing for Morientes to head home.

We all know that the whole of the ball has to cross the line but on this occasion it appeared the assistant ref felt that none of the ball had to go over for it to be ruled out.

But before anyone gets too precious and complaining about "homer" officials, now is as good a time as any for a quick history lesson.

Of course we might as well start with 1966 and England winning the World Cup. Geoff Hurst's second goal in the final against West Germany has been watched, re-watched and digitally analysed arguably more than any other goal in history with the overwhelming evidence suggesting that the ball did not cross the line.

But the goal was given, England won the World Cup and not many of the home fans lost too much sleep over it.

I was too young to enjoy that moment but we only have to go back six years for other examples of England getting a couple of favourable decisions at Wembley when hosting a major championship.

In Euro 96 it was the poor old Spanish who suffered yet again in the quarter-final when a clearly onside goal was disallowed. The game was drawn 0-0, England went through on penalties and the host nation rejoiced, much as the South Koreans did on Saturday.

Even in the semi-final England had the best of it as a header by Kuntz in golden goal extra time was debatably chalked off. Mind you it might have been preferable to go out to that goal rather than seeing Gareth Southgate miss from the spot.

Certainly in their last two games the South Koreans have ridden their luck and if I was Italian or Spanish I would have been choking on my pasta or tapas, to coin a Motty style phrase.

But why that means we should support Germany, who were outplayed by the USA and only avoided being pegged back to 1-1 because a blatant handball by Herr Frings was missed, I have no idea.

I have said before that the standard of the linesmen in this tournament has been little short of diabolical but that should not detract from the co-host's achievement in making the semi-finals.

Let's face it, FIFA's general ineptitude meant they completely stuffed up handing the next World Cup to South Africa by allowing a crucial vote to an octogenarian Scotsmen living in New Zealand.

Are we really to believe that they are capable of fixing the world's greatest tournament? I don't think so.