Graham Poll

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Graham Poll
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.

Contents

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.

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.

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 officials, 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."

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

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.

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.

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]

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]

3 red cards in the same game

2 red cards in the same game

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

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)

Season Games Total Cautioned Cautioned per game Total Sent off Sent off 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
2006/2007 37 132 3.56 7 0.19

  • 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 8 November 2006 in which he sent off James McFadden. McFadden allegedly called Poll a "cheat" after his decision to wave away a penalty claim for a foul on Andrew Johnson. McFadden denied the allegation.[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]

  • Games officiated: 1
  • Goals seen: 3
  • Bookings: 2
  • Reds: 0
  • Penalties awarded: 0
Event Games Cautioned Cautioned Cautioned Sent off Sent off
World Cup 2002 1 2 0 0

  • Games officiated: 3
  • Goals seen: 11
  • Bookings: 16
  • Reds: 4
  • Penalties awarded: 1
Event Games Cautioned Cautioned Cautioned Sent off Cautioned Cautioned Cautioned Sent off Sent off
World Cup 2006 3 16 3 1 0

1998 FIFA World Cup qualification

UEFA Euro 2000

2002 FIFA World Cup qualification

2002 FIFA World Cup

2006 FIFA World Cup qualification

FIFA Club World Championship 2005

2006 FIFA World Cup

  1. ^ Mark Kendall. "Poll ends international career", Sky Sports, 2006-06-29. Retrieved on July 10, 2006.
  2. ^ Lawrie Madden (2002-08-23). Poll: Scrutiny is relentless. TheFA.com. Retrieved on July 10, 2006.
  3. ^ "World-Poll blows whistle on wedding anniversary", Reuters, 2006-06-05. Retrieved on June 23, 2006.
  4. ^ a b c d "Poll retires from international game", The Guardian, 2006-06-29. Retrieved on June 29, 2006.
  5. ^ Referee Poll takes at keepy uppy challenge. SOS Children's Villages (2006-05-23). Retrieved on June 23, 2006.
  6. ^ http://worldcup.espnsoccernet.com/story?id=215122&lang=us
  7. ^ a b Tom Dart. "Croatia 2 Australia 2", The Times, 2006-06-23. Retrieved on June 23, 2006.
  8. ^ Worldcup06 22.6. Croatia - Australia 2-2. Retrieved on July 10, 2006.
  9. ^ 2006 World Cup Match Detail. FIFAworldcup.com. Retrieved on June 23, 2006. Note: Šimunić's second of the three yellow cards, in the 90' minute has since been removed from the website.
  10. ^ "Poll's head may roll after FIFA analysis", Fox Sports, 2006-06-24. Retrieved on June 24, 2006.
  11. ^ "Poll set for early World Cup exit", BBC, 2006-06-23. Retrieved on June 23, 2006.
  12. ^ Ryan Mills. "Socceroos Advance at World Cup After Mistakes, Late Kewell Goal", Bloomberg, 2006-06-23. Retrieved on June 23, 2006.
  13. ^ "Ref Poll sent home from World Cup", BBC, 2006-06-28. Retrieved on June 28, 2006.
  14. ^ Matt Hughes. "Chelsea stars on the attack as row with Poll escalates", The Times, 2006-11-07. Retrieved on November 7, 2006.
  15. ^ Martin Lipton. "You lot need to be taught a lesson", The Daily Mirror, 2006-11-07. Retrieved on November 7, 2006.
  16. ^ "Hackett probes claim against Poll", BBC Sport, 2006-11-07. Retrieved on November 7, 2006.
  17. ^ "McFadden denies comment over Poll", BBC Sport, 11 November 2006. Retrieved on November 12, 2006.
  18. ^ BBC news 24 sports report, 28 December.
  19. ^ "Blackburn 1-0 Arsenal", BBC Sport, 28 February 2007. Retrieved on March 1, 2007.

Preceded by
Peter Jones		 FA Cup Final Referee
2000		 Succeeded by
Steve Dunn
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../g/r/a/Graham_Poll_9f2d.html"
Advanced Search
Included Web Search Engines


Safe Search

close

Top Matching Results

Occasionally Search.com will highlight specialized results that are based on the context of your query. Examples of specialized results include specific links to news, images, or video.

Top Matching Results may highlight information from other Search.com pages, content from the CNET Network of sites, or third party content. The listings are based purely on relevance. Search.com does not receive payment for listings in this section but our partners that provide this data may get paid for listing these products.

Sponsored Links

This section contains paid listings which have been purchased by companies that want to have their sites appear for specific search terms and related content. These listings are administered, sorted and maintained by a third party and are not endorsed by Search.com.

Search Results

Search.com sends your search query to several search engines at one time and integrates the results into one list which has been sorted by relevance using Search.com's proprietary algorithm. You can customize the list of search engines included in your metasearch from the preferences.

The search engines that are used in your metasearch may allow companies to pay to have their Web sites included within the results. To view the Paid Inclusion policy for a specific search engine, please visit their Web site. Search.com does not accept payment or share revenue with any search engine partner for listings in this section.