Graham Poll

Graham Poll (born July 29, 1963 in Tring, Hertfordshire) is an English football referee in the FA Premier League. With 26 years of experience^[1], he is regarded as one of the most prominent referees^[2]^[3] in the Premiership in recent years, often taking charge of the highest profile games.

As well as refereeing the 2004-05 UEFA Cup final he has been the English representative at 2 World Cups and UEFA Euro 2000.

He rose to prominence on the world football scene after his performance in the Croatia vs Australia match at the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany, due to what BBC called "a series of high-profile errors", most notably booking the same player three times before sending the player off. Poll has retired from refereeing international tournament finals matches citing his error in the match but will continue to referee in the Premiership, Champions League and on International Games - but he has said he will not allow himself to be nominated to represent The FA at any Tournament Finals as he feels he has had his chance.^[4] Poll is an active contributor to the SOS Children's Villages charity. As part of the project, Poll recently visited a school in Hertfordshire, and oversaw a 'Keepy Uppy' session, in aid of the charity.^[5] He was an "invigilator" for group and individual competitions. The collection of the £1 entry fees raised money for the villages. The active involvement of a World Cup referee boosted the profile of the day.

Football career

Poll has taken charge of quite a few European matches, of which his most important to date was the UEFA Cup final between CSKA Moscow and Sporting Lisbon in 2005. Poll has also taken charge of many international matches, for which he has held a FIFA badge since 1996, refereeing at top FIFA and UEFA tournaments such as Euro 2000, where Poll took charge of France vs Czech Republic, and Norway vs Slovenia in the group stages.

France v Czech Republic 2000

Poll first attracted controversy on the international stage for a decision in the above game played on July 13, 2000, in Bruges at Euro 2000. During the first half Poll awarded a penalty kick to the Czech Republic. However, before awarding the kick Poll ventured over to the Assistant Referee to confirm where the foul had occurred. Despite being unsighted Poll awarded the penalty.

World Cup 2002

Poll attracted controversy for his role in the Italy v Croatia game at the 2002 FIFA World Cup played on Saturday June 8, 2002. His two assistants that day were England's Phil Sharp and Denmark's Jens Larsen. In the opening minutes, Poll had waved away a protest that a Croatian player had been injured, instructing the player to stand. When play was eventually stopped the player left the field with a bloodied nose.

Just after half time Christian Vieri had a headed goal disallowed for offside; TV replays clearly showed the Italian player to be on-side when the pass was made. Vieri netted the ball again minutes later to give his side the lead. Italy then had a second goal disallowed for shirt pulling, after a long free kick had found its way in. Both goals had been flagged for infringement by assistant referee Larsen. Croatia then found an equaliser through Ivica Olić, and a winner just fifteen minutes before the end via a deflected shot from Milan Rapaić. Poll had a busy game, as there were forty-two fouls, three goals scored, two goals disallowed, and two bookings.

After the game, Vieri said "Those weren't division one or even division two officails, they were village officials...".Francesco Totti also complained about the lack of protection Poll had offered him: "I took a lot of kicks. He was an English referee in every way". ^[6]

As a result of the game FIFA were asked about the standard of refereeing at that World Cup. Their spokesman, Keith Cooper said "Generally the overall standard (of refereeing) is more than satisfactory. It is acknowledged that mistakes may be made. I'm not necessarily saying this was the case last night. I do want to emphasize that. It is in the nature of the beast that mistakes can happen. Referees are humans just like players and we shouldn't look at isolated matches .... but the standard as a whole."

World Cup 2006

Poll was the only British referee at the 2006 World Cup in Germany.

Togo v South Korea

This was the first game of Poll's second FIFA World Cup, with first time Finalists Togo taking on 2002 semi-finalists South Korea. Poll sent off Jean-Paul Abalo of Togo for a second bookable offence, although the decision was unclear as he showed the red card before the second yellow. Lee Chun-Soo netted an equaliser for Korea from the resultant free kick.

Saudi Arabia v Ukraine

Poll's second game of the 2006 FIFA World Cup saw Saudi Arabia meet Ukraine. The Ukrainians finished 4-0 winners. Poll received slight criticism from commentators for not booking players for unsportsmanlike 'diving' when turning down a penalty appeal (as referees have been instructed to do by FIFA). In all, he showed six yellows, three to each side. There was an unfortunate moment in the first half for Poll, after he accidentally deflected the ball into the path of the Ukrainian, Maksym Kalynychenko. The midfielder crossed the ball in front of the goal, and Andriy Shevchenko only narrowly avoided making contact.

Croatia v Australia

His next game was the Group F match between Croatia and Australia on June 22. Tom Dart, in his Times article on the match, commented that, "The choice of Graham Poll as referee was surprising since he is familiar to the Australians who play in the Barclays Premiership."^[7] Inside the first ten minutes of the game, Poll did not see a rough tackle by Šimunić^[7] as a foul.

After already sending off two players, Poll failed to send off Josip Šimunić for a second yellow card late in the match, eventually sending him off for a third yellow^[8] for dissent at the final whistle.^[9]

Controversially, Poll also stopped play and blew the final whistle 15 seconds before stoppage time (as viewed on the television coverage's clock) expired, just as the ball was about to cross the Croatian goal line at the 93'. The game ended 2-2, putting Australia through to the next round. Sepp Blatter later commented that "had Australia lost the game and gone out of the World Cup, they would have had grounds to request a replay."^[10] Poll's assistant also missed that the second Australian goal by Harry Kewell was scored from an offside position.^[11] "Within half an hour of the game ending, UK bookmaker Coral offered odds of 10-1 against Poll refereeing another match at the tournament."^[12]

Outcome

On June 28, Poll was named as one of 14 officials dismissed by FIFA from the remaining World Cup 2006 matches following his error in the Croatia v. Australia match.^[13] Maria Villar Llona, president of the FIFA referee's committee, said of Poll, "He is an exceptional referee and a great sportsman, who will be able to overcome the situation thanks to his strong personality and love of the game."^[4]

Poll retired from international tournament finals football on June 29, 2006, citing the error as the reason. He said in his retirement announcement,

"What I did was an error in law. There can be no dispute. It was not caused by a FIFA directive, it was not caused by me being asked to referee differently to the way I referee in the Premier League. The laws of the game are very specific. The referee takes responsibility for his actions on the field of play. I was the referee that evening. It was my error and the buck stops with me."^[4]

He will continue to referee in the Champions League and on International Games, but he said he will not allow himself to be nominated to represent The FA at any tournament finals. "It's time for somebody else in England to have a go and I will do everything I can to prepare them. But for me tournament football is over," Poll said.^[4]

Career highlights

FA Cup Final, May 20, 2000, Chelsea v. Aston Villa (last Cup Final at old Wembley Stadium)

Worthington Cup Final, February 24, 2002, Blackburn v. Tottenham

2002 FIFA World Cup, June 8, 2002, Italy v. Croatia (only English referee)

Championship Playoff Final, May 29, 2004, Crystal Palace v. West Ham

UEFA Cup Final, May 18, 2005, Sporting Lisbon v. CSKA Moscow

2006 FIFA World Cup, June 2006, Togo v. South Korea, Saudi Arabia v. Ukraine, Croatia v. Australia - (only English referee)

Red card trivia

3 red cards in the same game

Wimbledon (Cort, Euell) v. Manchester City (Morrison), January 2, 1999, FA Cup
Sunderland (Rae, Gray) v. Manchester United (Cole), January 31, 2001, Premiership
Croatia (Šimić, Šimunić) v. Australia (Emerton), June 22, 2006, FIFA World Cup

2 red cards in the same game

Bolton (Todd) v. Aston Villa (Collymore), October 4, 1997, Premiership
Chelsea v. Leeds (Haaland, Kelly), December 13, 1997, Premiership
Arsenal (Keown) v. Blackburn (Gillespie), April 6, 1999, Premiership
Chelsea (Wise) v. Leicester (Walsh), January 30, 2000, FA Cup
Arsenal (Vieira) v. Liverpool (McAllister), August 21, 2000, Premiership
Arsenal (Parlour) v. Newcastle (Bellamy), December 18, 2001, Premiership
Everton (Arteta, Neville) v. Liverpool, December 28, 2005, Premiership

Clubs with most dismissals

Everton have received 6 red cards
Arsenal has received 5 red cards
Aston Villa and Leeds have each been shown 4

Late in the game

Has shown a red card to 9 different players in the 90th minute (Moore, Todd, Collymore, Wise, De Zeeuw, Arteta, Duljaj, Šimunić, Corradi)
There are 8 other players who have been shown the red card in the last five minutes of a game (Euell, Dunne and Šimić - 85 minutes, Emerton - 86 minutes, Dichio - 87 minutes, Unsworth - 88 minutes, Robinson - 88 minutes, Smith - 89 minutes)^{[citation needed]}

Goalkeepers

Has only ever sent two goalkeepers off (Schwarzer for Middlesbrough in 2001, and Robinson for Leeds in 2004)

Three yellow cards to one player in one game

Croatia v Australia , Simunic 61' 90' 93' World Cup 2006 (due to him neglecting to send the player off following his second caution)

By year and cards given

Season	Games	Total	per game	Total	per game
1995/1996	21	62	2.95	3	0.14
1997/1998	28	113	4.04	12	0.4
1998/1999	32	119	3.71	9	0.28
1999/2000	40	136	3.4	6	0.15
2000/2001	43	119	2.77	11	0.26
2001/2002	45	120	2.66	6	0.13
2002/2003	40	119	2.98	5	0.13
2003/2004	42	114	2.71	4	0.1
2004/2005	45	124	2.75	5	0.11
2005/2006	49	166	3.41	10	0.2

2005 - 2006 season facts and trivia

Issued, on average, a red card every 4.9 games
Only refereed six games in which no cards were shown
Did not show more than ten cards in a game (although 9 yellows were brandished in the Fulham - Bolton clash in November 2005)
Gave four red cards in the Premiership, three for second bookings, and one for violent conduct
Refereed Chelsea seven times, and Manchester United, Arsenal and Birmingham each six times
Was in charge for both West Midlands derbies (Aston Villa vs. Birmingham City)
Officiated both Arsenal vs. Manchester United games
Refereed every team in the Premiership that season, except Sunderland

2006 - 2007 season facts and trivia

After a game between Spurs and Chelsea at White Hart Lane on November 5, in which Poll controversially sent off John Terry and disallowed a Chelsea goal, Chelsea players claimed that Poll told them during the match that they needed to be "taught a lesson" and were "out of order"^[14]^[15] over their on-pitch behaviour, a claim which Poll later denied. Referees' chief Keith Hackett who will investigate Chelsea's claims said "The player who has made the comments should be aware that the referee, along with his assistant referees, were all wearing microphones."^[16]

Poll refereed the Carling Cup 4th Round match between Everton and Arsenal at Goodison Park on Wednesday 8th November in which he sent off James McFadden in the 20th minute after the he'd waved away a penalty claim for a foul on Andrew Johnson. Poll argued that McFadden had called him a f***ing cheat, but the player denies such a claim, saying he said "thats f***ing sh*t*" to Mr. Poll.^[17]

On the December 2, 2006, Poll was criticised for his performance in the North London Derby between Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur by some media outlets and Tottenham fans. This was due to Arsenal winning the game 3-0 with all 3 goals having elements of controversy about them: a possible offside decision not given, a dubious penalty award to Arsenal and a handball by Arsenal's Robin Van Persie not given. ^{[citation needed]}

The last goal scored in the Charlton - Fulham match December 27, 2006, was as a result of an erroneously awarded free-kick against Djimi Traore for Handball. Subsequent replays show the opposing player was to blame, and although it was the assistant referee who originally flagged for the free kick, Graham Poll awarded it. He later apologised for the error.^[18]

On 28th February, 2007, during the Arsenal - Blackburn FA Cup 5th round replay match, Graham Poll waved away two penalty claims by Arsenal players in the same half. ^[19]