Iconic Moments in Football No.64
If you type ‘Graham Poll’ into Google, the first thing that appears after his name are ‘three yellows’. This refers to an error that Poll made in a World Cup match and features as this week’s ‘Iconic Moment’ .
Graham Poll is considered to be the best English referee of his generation. He spent 24 years refereeing in the Premier League, refereed in two World Cups and took charge of the 2005 UEFA Cup Final between CSKA Moscow and Sporting Lisbon. A year later he would be selected as the only English referee at the 2006 World Cup in Germany. It was there that he would make the biggest mistake of his career.
Poll was in charge of three group stage matches; South Korea vs Togo, Saudi Arabia vs Ukraine and Croatia vs Australia. The first two passed without incident but the third match, Croatia vs Australia would be the turning point of Poll’s career.
Both sides were fighting for the second qualifying place in the group. Brazil had beaten both of them and faced bottom-placed Japan in the final group game which kicked off at the same time as this match. It was widely expected that the reigning World Champions would beat Japan. They did not disappoint and ran out convincing 4-1 winners.
Australia had beaten Japan 3-1 but Croatia could only draw 1-1 with them. It meant that Australia needed to avoid defeat to qualify and nothing but a victory would be enough for the Croatians to reach the final 16.
The match had been a hotly-contested affair, with Dario Simic of Croatia and Australia’s Brett Emerton sent off in the final five minutes.
Dario Srna had given Croatia the lead in the second minute, only for Craig Moore to level from the penalty spot. Niko Kovac gave Croatia the lead again on 56 minutes to put Croatia in second place in the group. As things stood, they would be going through to the Second Round at the expense of the Australians.
Five minutes after Kovac’s goal, Croatian centre back Josip Simunic brought Australia’s Harry Kewell down at the edge of the Croatia penalty area. It was a clear yellow card and Poll correctly booked the defender.
Kewell then scored an equaliser after 79 minutes, meaning that if the score stayed the same, it would be the Socceroos and not Croatia who would go through. This caused the Croatia team to become increasingly frustrated as the clock ticked on to the final whistle.
In the 90th minute Croatia continued to pile men forward, desperate to find the winner. A long clearance upfield from an Australian defender was hit towards Harry Kewell, who was stood near the centre circle.
As the ball bounced, Kewell and Simunic began tussling for the ball. Kewell chested the ball down and Simunic dragged the Australian to the ground. It was a clear booking and again Poll obliged with a yellow card.
However, the English referee did not follow the yellow card with a red. Poll didn’t realise his error, Simunic said continued to play on as if nothing had happened!
Poll was still blissfully unaware of his error and the game carried on. Simunic again fouled an Australian in the final seconds of the match, but did so as Poll blew the final whistle. The referee gave him a third yellow and sent him off but the game had ended.
The three yellow cards became big news and Poll was dismissed from officiating any further matches in that World Cup tournament.
Unfortunately for Poll, the mistake that he made was on the biggest stage in world football, coupled with the fact that it was such a simple error. It is something that I’m sure he would rather forget, but will more than likely never be allowed to.
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