Berlin – English referee Graham Poll, who showed a Croatian player three yellow cards before sending him off in a World Cup match, is quitting international refereeing.
The Premier League referee said Thursday he considered retiring from all soccer after his blunder, which meant a Croatian player stayed on the field three minutes longer than he should have against Australia.
The result, a 2-2 draw, was not affected and Croatia was eliminated. However, if the result had changed as a result of Poll’s blunder, one of the teams could have demanded a replay.
Poll and Russian referee Valentin Ivanov, who handed out a record number of cautions and red cards in the Portugal-Netherlands match, were not selected for the quarterfinals, semifinals and final. They were among 14 referees who did not make the cut for the final stages.
Minutes after sending off an Australian and a Croatian player in the 87th minute, Poll showed Josip Simunic a second yellow card, but did not send him off. He was shown a third yellow card after the game ended.
“It’s time for me to let go of the mistake – nobody got hurt from the error, nobody died,” Poll said. “… What I did was a public mistake, but it didn’t affect qualification, it didn’t affect the outcome of the match.”
Portugal’s baby boom
Luis Boa Morte became the latest player to skip training and fly out of Germany to be present when his wife gave birth. Portugal meets England in the quarterfinals Saturday, and the winger has not been included in the starting lineup.
Earlier, defender Paulo Ferreira flew to Portugal for the birth of his first child.
