North Korea livid over scoreboard snafu

• by Soccer America , Jul 25, 2012

[OLYMPIC SPOTLIGHT] The fireworks at Glasgow's Hampden Park on the opening day of play at the 2012 Summer Olympics didn't end with the USA's 4-2 win over France. North Korea walked off the field, prompting a lengthy delay in the start of the nightcap with Colombia after a South Korea flag was mistakenly displayed next to North Korean players in pre-game introductions on the stadium scoreboard.

London organizers made a full apology to the team and the North Korean National Olympic Committee after the incident caused a 65-minute delay in the start of the game won by North Korea, 2-0.

"We were angry because our players were introduced as if they were from South Korea, which may affect us greatly as you may know," North Korea coach Sin Ui-gun said. "Our team was not going to participate unless the problem was solved perfectly and fortunately some time later, the broadcasting was corrected and shown again live so we made up our mind to participate and go on with the match. If this matter cannot be solved, we thought going on was nonsense. Winning the game cannot compensate for that thing."

(In the interest of full disclosure, Tuesday's publication of the Olympic men's schedule mistakenly listed North Korea as a participant in the men's competition. Soccer America corrected the error without incident.)