Graeme Poll retires

[Dream34]

Did you here about Graeme Poll retiring after stuffing up the 2 yellow cards= a red in the Croatia against Australia match. He has come out and said that a mistake this bad, he doesn't deserve to continue on at International level.
Pretty crazy, I wonder if FIFA put any pressure on him, wonder if any of the other refs that got sent home will do the same????

 

[Magicman]

I think he would have gotten a pretty good message to give up. Something that bad is embarrassing to the game of soccer, especially when theres billions upon billions watching.

 

[Hennessy]

So football (soccer) referees only gets one chance and if you do one cock-ups, you're out of here? Damn, that's a very tough rule to follow for a human being. If Poll was sent to pack his bags, I sure hope they told his 2 sidelines ref and the 4th ref home as well. It's almost as severe as a pilot, if he crash landed his plane with survivors, his job would be on the line too but that's besides the point. We're talking about referreing here.

Anyway, by what I mean by one chance is, because I know Graham Poll quite well; career wise. He is a great referee and before that bad mistake, he has had a top refereeing career. Doesn't that justify or balance up for his one mistake? Luckily, he is only retiring from the International scene and we have him to still refereeing the beautiful in the English Premier League.

Let's be fair too though, if there was a mistake call on the video ref ruling in the future, I hope they will sack the video ref ruling as well.

Cheers~

 

[Dream34]

Yeah FIFA sent home 15 officals that had shockers during the group stage,saying that they weren't needed for the rest of the comp. This included the 2nd and 3rd refs. I think that that was justified that they shouldn't have got to ref the other rounds but I don't think that it justified
a retirement. I'm thinking that he was pushed! Pretty much a waste of talent IMO

 

[Hennessy]

^ Yeah dream, I fully agree with you mate. I think his punishment for not taking any further participation on the rest of the World Cup should be enough but I think FIFA might have pushed him into retirement as well.

As for Ivanov, that's a different story as well. We could go on and on and on about him setting a record of 16 yellows, 20 cards altogether, the most ever produced in a WC match but without those caution cards, they would probably be a few life threatening injuries because tackles in that game was quite vicious, let alone the brawls. He controlled that game well but he did missed out on some important calls too such as the studs up tackle on the chest on Robben on the penalty box.

 

[mattyj]

what about the idiot ref that gave the penalty to italy? did he get sent home? :|

 

[Hennessy]

what about the idiot ref that gave the penalty to italy? did he get sent home? :|

Nope. He has actually assigned to ref future matches for the remainder of the World Cup.

I think his next game to officiate is the Brazil / France game but correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[mattyj]

fair enough, i dont understand soccer enough to know whether the penalty was really justified or not, but with Graeme Poll, well, that was a rather big stuff, on a rather big stage