‘Sending-off offences include receiving a second caution in the same match’ [FIFA RULES].
At the 2006 World Cup, Croatia played Australia in the last matchday for Group F. A draw would take Australia through and send Croatia home. It was a chaotic affair, so much so, that the English referee that day, Graham Poll gave one player three yellow cards before dismissing him with a red card. A monumental refereeing cock-up that ended his international career.
At 2-1 to Croatia in the 66th minute, Josip Šimunić was given a yellow card after a foul on Harry Kewell, who would go on to score and make it 2-2 13 minutes later. Dario Šimić (85 minutes) and Brett Emerton (87 minutes) were then been sent off, and it wasn’t a surprise that these two teams would take part in an aggressive match with plenty of cards shown. Croatia was fighting for the winning goal they needed to take them through to the knockout stages when the mistake happened. Poll later claimed that he had shown a yellow card to Šimunić but marked the card against Craig Moore of Australia, as both players were number 3 and Šimunić’s Australian accent (having been born and raised in Australia) confused him.
What made the blunder even worse was that Poll would eventually send Šimunić off after the final whistle for dissent. He was shown a third yellow card that would officially be noted as the second yellow card, and therefore a red card, by the referee.
The yellow card blunder wasn’t the only mistake Graham Poll made in the match. There were also incidents where he missed a clear handball, a penalty claim he denied after Mark Viduka was wrestled to the floor inside the box by Šimunić, AND he blew the final whistle as an Australian shot was about to cross the line for what would have been a winner.
The match in Stuttgart would finish 2-2, Australia qualifying out of the group with Brazil to reach the knockout stages and Croatia going home with Japan. Poll and his team were removed from the rest of the World Cup and he would retire as an international referee a month later. After one more season of Premier League officiating, Poll would then retire from the club game too.
It’s mad to think that the state of refereeing in England currently makes you long for the days of referees from the Graham Poll era, even with a mistake as big as this one in a high-profile World Cup match.
Did you enjoy this post?