Japanese techies accused of bending balls

A group of Russian hackers claim to have uncovered a bizarre hi-tech conspiracy that caused their football team to lose against Japan.

The claim has been taken seriously and reported in the Russian newspaper Pravda, once the official organ of the Communist Party.

The Russian hackers believe the results of the game were faked due to the efforts of Japanese technicians serving the stadium in Yokohama.

Igor B, one of the active members of the hacker group, told Pravda that his group had managed to get into the inner computer network of the stadium where the game was being played.

The stadium had a complicated computer system but the hackers managed to get into the system of technical servicing that looked after the light control systems, automatic watering and heating of the stadium.

The heating apparently got the hackers confused because they believed there was no need for it in such a warm country as Japan.

When they looked closer they worked out that the system was actually meant for creating a powerful electromagnetic current and field, the capacity of which varied from several variables that were coming from dozens of computers.

"We did not find out what the circuit and the magnetic field were meant for on the stadium; maybe they could be used for scaring birds and insects away. Japanese are very inventive and they can make up very unusual things sometimes," Igor B told Pravda.

However, the hackers believe that the magnetic field was actually used to bend the penalty kick away from the Japanese goal that cost Russia the game.

"After the ball was kicked, it was flying on the proper parabola, according to physical laws. All of a sudden it flew up without reaching the bar of the Japanese goal," Igor B said.

He said that the new World Cup balls had a fine hexagonal incision of thin wire on them which could be seen by close-up cameras at the time.

At the Institute of Mechanics at Moscow State University, Professor Dmitriyev of the laboratory of supersonic speed said that Russian scientists were carrying out similar experiments, "although not to fix soccer matches".