Italy fan sues World Cup referee

ROME (August 23, 2002 3:02 p.m. EDT) - Still seething over Italy's ignominious World Cup exit, a fan said on Friday he had taken Ecuadorean referee Byron Moreno to court for corruption and plans to call celebrity midfielder Francesco Totti as a witness.

Co-hosts South Korea upset the "Azzurri" 2-1 with a golden goal winner in June in the second round of the World Cup finals.

Moreno controversially sent off playmaker Totti for diving and disallowed a Damiano Tomassi goal for off-side, incurring the wrath of Italians, who fired off 400,000 angry e-mails in a single night.

"We can't give in to the arrogance of this man (Moreno), who destroyed the hopes of our team," said Maurizio Giorgetti, who filed the suit with Rome's magistrates two months ago.

The Rome prosecutor's office was not available for comment and it was not clear how the case would stand up under international law.

Giorgetti, a coordinator for the Socialist National Front, a small neo-Fascist political party, said he thought Moreno had been paid by multinational companies to fix the result.

"The globalizers bought off Moreno, that's what happened. As Italians we have to defend the traditions of the tricolore (the national flag)," Giorgetti said in a telephone interview.

The Rome-based daily Il Messaggero reported on Friday that magistrates had already prepared court documents to send to Japan, which co-hosted the tournament, requesting information.

National coach Giovanni Trapattoni would also be called to testify in the case, it said.

In the days following the controversial match, FIFA President Sepp Blatter denied allegations that soccer's world governing body had been part of a plot to oust Italy in favor of the Koreans. He called on Italians to show dignity in defeat.