Graham Poll

Poll took up the whistle in 1980, progressing from the Isthmian League to become a Football League assistant referee in 1986. Five years later he became a full Football League referee, before being selected for the list of Premier League referees in 1993.[8]

Having held a FIFA badge since 1996, he took charge of quite a few European matches, of which possibly his most important was the UEFA Cup final between CSKA Moscow and Sporting Lisbon in 2005. Poll also took charge of many international matches, refereeing at top FIFA and UEFA tournaments such as Euro 2000, where Poll took charge of France versus Czech Republic, and Norway versus Slovenia in the group stages. He refereed his last Premier League match on 13 May 2007, between Portsmouth and Arsenal in which he controversially, but correctly, denied Portsmouth European qualification by ruling out a Niko Kranjčar goal for offside.

His last match was to have been the Euro 2008 qualifying match on 6 June 2007.[9] After it was discovered he took part in an interview which appeared critical of the support referees receive from the FA in the face of criticism by team managers and coaches[10] the match was overseen by Mike Riley instead. In August 2007, Poll released his autobiography entitled "Seeing Red", and concentrated on being a pundit for BBC Sport's football coverage, and as a columnist with The Daily Mail, his feature entitled "The Official Line".[11]

In the dying seconds of the Merseyside derby between Everton and Liverpool on 21 April 2000 with the score at 0–0,[12] the Liverpool goalkeeper kicked the ball into Don Hutchison's back while Hutchison was retreating towards his own half. The ball bounced into Liverpool's net, but Poll disallowed the goal, claiming that he had already blown the whistle to end the game. The television slow-motion pictures proved that this was incorrect, and after retiring in May 2007, Poll confessed that disallowing the goal had been a mistake that he regretted.[13]

Poll refereed the Italy versus Croatia game at the 2002 FIFA World Cup, played on Saturday 8 June 2002. Poll had a busy game, as there were forty-two fouls, three goals scored, two goals disallowed, and two bookings. Poll was given one more appointment at that world cup: Fourth Official to Pierluigi Collina in the second round match which Turkey beat Japan 1–0.[14]

Poll was the only English referee at the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany. His first game was South Korea vs Togo. Poll sent off Jean-Paul Abalo of Togo for a second bookable offence, and the match was eventually won by South Korea 2–1. His second game was Saudi Arabia vs Ukraine. The Ukrainians finished the match as the 4–0 winners, with Poll showed six yellows, three to each side. His last game was Croatia vs Australia. 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 for dissent at the final whistle.[15] Poll stated that he had erred in his second booking of Šimunić, marking his card with the correct number (3) but in the wrong column due to Šimunić's Australian accent, meaning he booked Australia's Craig Moore instead of Simunic. The game ended 2–2, putting Australia through to the next round. On 28 June, 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.[16] 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."[7]

Poll retired from international tournament finals football on 29 June 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.

In the press release, he also claimed that he had asked FIFA to be allowed to go home, to be with his family after the trauma of his mistake in the match.[7]

He continued to referee in the Champions League and on international games, but said he would 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.[7]

2002 World Cup statistics

• Games officiated: 1
• Goals seen: 3
• Bookings: 2
• Reds: 0
• Penalties awarded: 0

Event	Games
2002 World Cup	1	2	0	0

2006 World Cup statistics

• Games officiated: 3
• Goals seen: 11
• Bookings: 16
• Reds: 4
• Penalties awarded: 1

Event	Games
2006 World Cup	3	16	4	0

• The above table is representative of the Laws of the Game, so does not include the extra yellow card
  mistakenly shown to Josip Šimunić of Croatia during his well-documented dismissal

• FA Cup Final, 20 May 2000 – Chelsea 1–0 Aston Villa (last Cup Final at the old Wembley Stadium)
• Football League Cup Final, 24 February 2002 – Blackburn Rovers 2–1 Tottenham Hotspur
• 2002 FIFA World Cup, 8 June 2002 – Italy 1–2 Croatia (only English referee)
• Football League First Division play-off Final, 29 May 2004 – Crystal Palace 1–0 West Ham United
• UEFA Cup Final, 18 May 2005 – Sporting CP 1–3 CSKA Moscow
• 2006 FIFA World Cup, June 2006 – Korea Republic 2–1 Togo, Saudi Arabia 0–4 Ukraine, Croatia 2–2 Australia (only English referee)
• Football League Championship play-off Final, 28 May 2007 – Derby County 1–0 West Bromwich Albion

Poll has made several appearances on popular football radio show World Soccer Daily, where he is typically asked to provide a view from the point of the referee whenever major controversial issues occur. He also features weekly on Chappers Premier League Podcast alongside Mark Chapman and Kevin Day. As well as this features in the Daily Mail where he speaks on officiating at the highest level, talking about decisions referees have to make. He also appears regularly as a pundit on Setanta Sports Football Matters show on Monday nights hosted by James Richardson and Rebecca Lowe. Since the end of 2009, Poll has also appeared as a regular news paper reviewer on Sky News Sunrise.

Born in Hitchin,[1] Poll grew up in Bandley Hill and Shephall, and attended Ashtree Junior School and Alleyne's School.[17][18] He is married to Julia. The couple have two daughters (Gemma and Josie), and one son (Harry).[19] Poll continues with charity work, and ran in the London Marathon on 13 April 2008, finishing in a time of four hours and 20 minutes.[20] The proceeds went to the Iain Rennie Hospice at Home.[21]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Graham Poll.

• Profile on FIFA World Cup 2006 site
• Graham Poll Referee Statistics at soccerbase.com
• Graham Poll interview

Preceded by Pierluigi Collina	UEFA Cup Final referee 2005	Succeeded by Herbert Fandel
Preceded by Peter Jones	FA Charity Shield referee 1998	Succeeded by Graham Barber
Preceded by Peter Jones	FA Cup Final referee 2000	Succeeded by Steve Dunn
Preceded by David Elleray	Football League Cup Final referee 2002	Succeeded by Paul Durkin