An internationally renowned manager has revealed how North Korean officials asked him to fix the 2010 FIFA World Cup draw so that the Asian side would have a "simple" group.
The year 2010 marked a historic moment as South Africa hosted the first-ever FIFA World Cup on African soil.
The tournament would go down as one of the best editions of the showpiece, with Spain emerging triumphant.
Scroll through the gallery below to see some of the most iconic images from the 2010 World Cup in South Africa
However, speaking during a BBC 5 Live Radio series called Sport's Strangest Crimes: The Trillion Dollar Conman, former Manchester City boss Sven-Goran Eriksson revealed that he had been approached to manipulate the 2010 group-stage draw in favour of North Korea.
The incident took place during a trip he had been asked to take the East Asian country by leading officials at Notts County, for whom he was director of football at the time.
"They (the North Korean representatives) knew I was a member of FIFA Football Committee," the former Ivory Coast boss explained.
"They said, 'Can you please help us?'
"'Of course, I can help you, if I can,' I said. I thought they wanted balls or shoes or something like that.
"They said, 'We want to have a simple draw'. They wanted to have help with the draw.
"Of course, I said, 'Do you really mean what I [think]? I can't do that. Nobody can do that. That's absolutely impossible and it's criminal, even to try.'
"But they never believed me. The amazing thing is that it looked like they don't believe that I can't do it – they believed that I just didn't want to do it. Very strange."
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Despite their reported attempt to rig the draw, North Korea were handed a difficult group alongside Brazil, Portugal, and Ivory Coast for the tournament in Mzansi.
They went on to concede a combined 12 goals in their three matches, including an embarrassing 7-0 defeat to Cristiano Ronaldo's Portugal at Cape Town Stadium.
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