Pakistan's manager Khalid Khokhar launched an extraordinary attack on the umpires after his team lost a crucial tie to Germany to bow out of field hockey's World Cup on Tuesday.
"They (the umpires) were against us and crossed all limits," a fuming Khokhar said after the 2-3 defeat that lifted Germany into the semi-finals. An official protest lodged by Pakistan against the two umpires - Clive McMurray of South Africa and Jason McCracken of New Zealand - was, however, thrown out by the International Hockey Federation (FIH).
Khokhar, a serving Brigadier in the Pakistani army, said "biased" umpiring had cost his team victory.
"The umpires disputed all the moves our players initiated, it appeared the umpires were playing the game, not us," he said.
"We could have won had the umpires not stood in the way. It is a terrible thing to happen at such a crucial stage of the tournament.
"We then talk of developing the sport. If officials are biased against Asian teams, how will the sport develop?"
Pakistan, who needed to beat Germany by two goals to qualify, overcame a 2-0 deficit through penalty corner ace Sohail Abbas' double-strike either side of the breather.
But German captain Florian Kunz sealed Pakistan's fate by scoring the match-winner with a penalty corner in the 49th minute.
The Pakistanis were particularly angry about two decisions by South African McMurray and one by the Kiwi. "We should have been awarded a penalty stroke when Kashif Jawad was brought down in the first-half," Khokhar said.
"Then a clear goal by Waseem Ahmed was disallowed. As if this was not enough, Tariq Imran was shown a yellow card for nothing, while German players were let off lightly."
Reduced to 10 men midway through the second-half, Pakistan suffered when Germany counter-attacked to score the match-winner.
The FIH rejected the protest on technical grounds, saying the Pakistani manager had not verbally declared his intention to lodge a protest.
Bureau Report