The co-host nation's dream run to the semi-finals looked to follow a fairytale script. But there was speculation over whether referee Byron Moreno, who officiated the Round-of-16 match between South Korea and Italy, stuck to a script as well. During the match, which Korea won 2-1 thanks to a golden goal, Moreno constantly ignored countless rough challenges by the co-hosts, disallowed a legitimate Italy goal and controversially sent off Francesco Totti for diving in the box. Fifa president Sepp Blatter labelled the refereeing “a disaster” but stopped short of buying into the conspiracy theories. Moreno has since been banned on two occasions for match-fixing and was released from jail late in 2012 after serving two years for drug smuggling.