PM: Flag mix-up 'unfortunate'

The managing director of Hampden Park, which showed the South Korean flag instead of the North Korean one on the big screen before last night's match, has insisted Locog is to blame for the mistake:

The London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (Locog) has acknowledged that the pre-match video package played at the stadium prior to the London 2012 Olympic football match on Wednesday 25th July 2012 was an error by Locog and we have been assured that action has been taken to ensure that there will be no repeat of this embarrassing and regrettable incident.

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David Cameron has said every effort will be made to ensure mistakes such as last night's Olympic flag mix-up never happen again.

The Prime Minister said the error in which the South Korean flag was wrongly shown instead of sworn enemy North Korea's at a football game was "an honest mistake" for which an apology has been issued.

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Prime Minister David Cameron today said that the South Korean flag being wrongly shown on a big screen before the North Korean women's football match was "unfortunate and should not have happened".

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Asked about Olympic security issues and the error over the North Korean team flag as he met Labour leader Ed Miliband in Westminster today, Mr Romney replied:

It is impossible for absolutely no mistakes to occur. Of course there will be errors from time to time, but those are all overshadowed by the extraordinary demonstrations of courage, character and determination by the athletes.

The Games are, after all, about the athletes, the volunteers and the people of the community who come together to celebrate those athletes. As soon as the Games begin, we all forget the organisers and focus on the athletes.

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There has been no mention of the flag mix-up in a brief report on North Korea v Colombia by the state news agency.

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Ahead of the Women’s football match at Hampden Park, the South Korean flag was shown on a big screen video package instead of the North Korean flag.

Clearly that is a mistake, we will apologise to the team and the National Olympic Committee and steps will be taken to ensure this does not happen again.

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Fans were confused by the flag mix-up at first, but then turned to doing a Mexican wave and then booing, the Associated Press reports.

After 20 minutes had passed since the scheduled kick-off time, an announcement was made over the public address system apologizing for the delay and saying it "was due to an issue behind the scenes. We're trying to resolve it and we'll keep you updated."

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