By Graham Dunbar
The IOC has told South Korean officials to bar a football player from collecting his bronze medal after he displayed a flag with a political message at the third-place match against Japan.
The International Olympic Committee said it has opened its own investigation into the South Korea national flag paraded after their last match. It carried a slogan supporting Korean sovereignty of islets which are disputed territory between it and Japan.
"We have also requested that the (South Korea Olympic Committee) takes swift action on this issue and that the athlete not be present at today's medal presentation ceremony," the IOC says in a statement. "We have opened an inquiry and have asked the (South Korea Olympic Committee) for an explanation."
FIFA said it has opened a separate investigation to discipline the player, who was not formally identified.
IOC and FIFA statutes prohibit political statements by athletes and players.
South Korea won 2-0 in the bronze-medal match, hours after state president Lee Myung-bak raised diplomatic tensions by travelling to the islets.
The presidential visit prompted Japan to recall its ambassador from Seoul.
The bronze-medal match in Cardiff, Wales, was seen as potentially further inflaming tensions.
FIFA has received pictures from the stadium showing a player celebrating victory with the flag on the field.
"The image will be passed to the chairman of the FIFA Disciplinary Committee for his review, and to evaluate any further steps to be taken," the football governing body says.
The largely uninhabited islets are called Dokdo in Korean and Takeshima in Japanese.
South Korea stations a small contingent of police officers there in a show of control, but Japan maintains that the rocks are its territory. Tokyo renewed the claim last month in an annual defence report.
During his visit, Lee reportedly told police officers there that the islets are "worth sacrificing lives for," according to the presidential office.
Japanese Foreign Minister Koichiro Gemba says it was "incomprehensible why (Lee) would make this trip at this time,"
Next Wednesday, South Korea will commemorate the peninsula's independence in 1945 from 35 years of Japanese colonial rule.
AP