Poll to pay price
Poll to pay price
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Harry Kewell grabbed a late equaliser to help Australia into the second round with a 2-2 draw with Croatia. |  |
Friday, 23, Jun 2006 10:02
English referee Graham Poll looks certain to have officiated his last game at the World Cup after a series of errors during Australia's 2-2 draw with Croatia caused the game to descend into a farce.
Poll showed three players red cards during the closing stages of yesterday's match in Stuttgart, but also issued defender Josip Simunic with three yellow cards, after failing to give the Croatian player his marching orders when he was booked for a second time.
Simunic was booked in the second-half for a late challenge on Harry Kewell and then after hauling Mark Viduka down in the last five minutes he headed for the touchline as Poll brandished a yellow.
But to both sets of players' disbelief and Simunic's relief Poll then failed to issue a red card and he remained on the field.
The Tring official did eventually send Simunic off but only in the closing seconds as the defender received his third yellow card for protesting a decision too vociferously.
Earlier in the match Poll had dismissed Australian winger Brett Emerton and Croatian midfielder Dario Simic in quick succession for receiving their second bookable offences.
Although he awarded the Socceroos a first-half penalty for handball, he missed an even more blatant offence after the interval and there was a strong suspicion that Harry Kewell's equalising goal was offside.
Even by taking the Simunic incident out of the equation, the combination of last night's errors would probably cut Poll's chances of refereeing in the tournament again, but his failure to issue a red card after booking a player twice leaves Fifa with no choice but to send him home.
The 42-year-old had been handed the whistle to such a potentially explosive game as Australia vs Croatia after officiating well in his opening two games.
But four years ago Poll was given an early bath from the World Cup in similar circumstances, as he denied Italy two seemingly legitimate goals as they crashed out to South Korea.