Friday, June 23, 2006

Oh, Graham Poll

The BBC reports that Englands only official in the World Cup - Graham Poll, is expected to making his way back from the World Cup tomorrow when FIFA announce the referees for the second round stage.

It is expected because of his performance last night in the Croatia v Australia game in which he made a number of errors, capped by the 'triple booking' of Josep Simunic before sending the Croatian player off.

For those familiar with the Premiership, there will not be too many tears shed at the high profile hammering that Poll has taken and what is surprising is that he was tipped to actually be in the running to officiate in the final.

Despite the failing of Poll over the booking, what I cannot understand (also echoed by Sepp Blatter) was that there is a 'team' of officials that work a game - including a fourth official and presumably this team is in contact with each other, yet at no time was Poll contacted to advise him of the mistake and to then correct it.

Slightly ironic is the fact that it is usually the English press who castigate an Egyptian or Tunisian referee for being incompetent, and it is one of our 'own' who is set to become the first refereeing casualty.

The standards have been fairly good so far in the tournament until yesterday (which also included Markus Merk's poor penalty award for Ghana) .

As we now head to the knock out stages it becomes even more important that the officiating is upto the high standards the tournament deserves.

vote it up!

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Perhaps, should we have a poll to deside?

Anonymous said...

The buck stops with Poll. It would be difficult if not impossible for the other officials to know who Poll had issued the yellow cards to, especially when there are a number of players around the ref and the other officials would be some distance away.
I'm sorry, but Poll has NOT been the fans favourite in the premiership for a number of years now and I for one am quite pleased that he has made such a 'cock up'.

Anonymous said...

I had the misfortune to watch Mr G Poll officiate the recent MCFC V Arsenal game at COMS, without a doubt the worst refereeing performance of last season. So the level of performance came no surprise to me.

Hard lines Graham - enjoy the Championship!!

Anonymous said...

Best bit of world cup yet. Just thinking about it makes me laugh.
I've sky plus'd it so I can watch it at my leisure. Hopefully he won't be able to live with the shame, the smug twat.

Danny Pugsley said...

Poll is getting it big from all sides - fans, media, officials, former players and pundits alike.

Definitely not a popular guy..

Anonymous said...

Jim T Dumfries said...
The buck stops with Poll. It would be difficult if not impossible for the other officials to know who Poll had issued the yellow cards to, especially when there are a number of players around the ref and the other officials would be some distance away.

Come on! I was watching here in Australia at 4.30 am :-( About 1 second after the second yellow was issued, the TV commentator saw the error and told the audience of millions, repeatedly. And not one of the refereeing panel saw it???

Anonymous said...

he's a f**kin arsehole, he's a f**kin arsehole, he's a f**kin arsehole. good riddance to a shite referee.

Anonymous said...

He iz a stupid idiot he should b fined

Anonymous said...

what a twat

Anonymous said...

Well I don't think anyone should blame him, he's a great ref and people who criticise should try being a referee for the day and se how it feels.

It's not easy making a decision in the 2 seconds that they have!
So leave him alone you sad people who go about criticising, you all obviously have nothing better to do then criticise a referee and swear at him!!!
HOW SADDD!! Get a life!!!

Anonymous said...

Yeah well said ^^^^^^^^ I think you're right, he's one of the best referees in the country so you people criticising... SHUT YOUR MOUTHS SADDOS!!!

Anonymous said...

Yes I agree with both the comments above.. People should try sticking by Graham Poll, he is one of the best english referees we have got. He is given the big games because he's at that top level and is good enough.
Refeerees are human beings too... They make mistakes like all of us, he has a family... Don't you think it's hard for them to hear people saying things and having it printed all over the papers?? You people need to think for a bit by For you people criticising him... he's not bothered what you think and I doubt he ever will be!

Anonymous said...

Deffo I agree with the 3 of you above, just lay off Graham Poll... What do you people know?
Shut up and leave him alone, you have no say in how the game is run, you people just watch it and don't have the faintest idea what goes on!
Shut your mouths get off the doll... get a job and grow up, coming on here to criticise really shows that you lot have nothing better to do with your lives.

Your lives are shite so you go and think you can tell a Premiership referee like Graham Poll how to ref a game!! HA HA... GET OVER YOUSELVES!