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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 experienced Premier League referee told Britain's Sky Sports television 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 second-round 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.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/soccer/specials/world_cup/2006/06/29/bc.soc.wcup.pollquits.ap/index.html
The experienced Premier League referee told Britain's Sky Sports television 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 second-round 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.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/soccer/specials/world_cup/2006/06/29/bc.soc.wcup.pollquits.ap/index.html