by Graham Poll
Graham phoned by Beckham 6
Graham receiving death
threats 131
Graham’s 100th international
match 50, 53–55
Graham’s decision to retire 336
Graham’s final match 68
Graham’s views on 127
Lake District weekend 208
marriage to Graham 126
media interest in Graham 44–45
meeting Graham 123–125
move to Reading 151
Newcastle fans 187
public recognition of Graham 37–38
support for Graham 278, 314, 361
three yellow cards incident 5–6, 307, 313, 326, 328
Tring as home town 129
Tring house besieged by media 326, 328
TV football coverage 79
UEFA Cup Final 2005 265
Valentine’s Day incident 125, 151
World Cup 2002 218
World Cup 2006 283, 287, 290–291, 296
Worthington Cup Final 2004 236
Poll, Mary (sister) 74
Poll, Susan (sister)
birth of 74
Euro 2000 165
support for Graham 361
UEFA Cup semi-final 2007 50
Portillo, Javier 230
Poulsen, Christian 54
Prendergast, Peter
Chelsea v Manchester United 2007 56
knee injury 284–285
Polls on holiday 272
World Cup 2002 213
World Cup 2006 283–286
Prince William 294
ProZone analyses 171–172
Prutton, David 66–67
Pugh, Dave 182
Radcliffe, Paula 109
Rapaic, Milan 217
Rebrov, Sergei 302
Redknapp, Harry 347
Reed, Mike 25
refereeing
assessment marking 226
bad language during matches 14
biased attitude of media 63
bribery 188–189
challenge of 102–103
commonsense 348–349
communications equipment 176
consistency 348–349
Continental-style refereeing 50
diagonal system 52
dissent 350
ex-footballers as referees 345–346
FA Cup Finals 84
fans abusing referees 131–137, 349
fitness 169–170
fitness testing 107–112
giving penalties 233–234
golden games 13, 227
heart monitors 175–176
importance of experience 345–346
importance of honesty 24–25
intense scrutiny of referees 31
interpretation of Laws 8
intimidation of referees by
players 19, 30
introduction of referees to
football 330
Laws of the Game 51, 97, 103, 116, 135–136, 350–351
managers’ aggression towards
referees 59
managers’ talking to officials 43
manufactured referees 94–95
natural referees 95
need for support from FA 30–31
neutrality of referees 330, 333
offensive language 117
officials making mistakes 40–41
officials’ changing room 16
outstanding referees 93–95
people-carrier transport 174, 187
player behaviour during set
pieces 190–191
players abusing referees 349–350
popularity versus respect 89, 136
pre-season training 267
pressures on international
referees 281–282
professional camaraderie 178–180
professional referees 346–347
ProZone analysis 171–172, 347
pyramid structure 333–334
refereeing ‘big’ matches 70–71
refereeing as career 331
referees turning professional 128, 152, 156–157
referees’ group meetings 178–183, 256, 270–271
referees’ test 99–100
rivalry among professional
referees 184–185
role of assistant referees 344–345
rules on injured players 51
rules on retirement 38
security briefings 174
stopping divers 347–348
summer break 225
target-oriented attitude 150
time-keeping 351
use of technology 343–344
verbal assaults by managers 60–61, 64
yellow card rule 2
Reid, Fred 99–100, 196, 210, 339
Renato, Dirnei 53
Rennie, Uriah 7–8
charitable work 182
Poll drinking incident 268
Repka, Tomas 233
Ricardo 244
Rice, Pat 175
Richardson, Garry 362
Ridden, Ken
Euro 2000 160, 167
Euro 2004 239–242
RefTalk website 155
Ridgeon, Dave 99
Rijkaard, Frank 250
Riley, Mike
Euro 2004 232, 239–242
Manchester United v Arsenal 2004 252
selection of referees for World
Cup 2006 243–244
support for Poll 242
Robinson, Paul
criticized by Warnock 145–147
Tottenham v Chelsea 2006 14
Roderigo 265
Ronaldo 229–231
Ronaldo, Cristiano
Arsenal v Manchester United 2005 261
outstanding player 73
running speed 110
Rooney, Wayne
Arsenal v Manchester United 2005 261
diving 260
Poll drinking incident 272
swearing at Poll 116–118, 261
Roth, Volker
assessing Poll 195–197, 199
World Cup 2002 219, 222–223
Rufus, Richard 90
Saha, Louis 257
Santini, Jacques 199
Savage, Robbie
banter with Poll 207–208
referees’ toilet incident 204–207, 211
Schmidhuber, Aaron 302
Scudamore, Richard
confidence in Poll 68
lack of support for referees 31
Poll’s retirement 65–66
RefTalk website 155
support for Poll 325, 362
Seaman, David 140–141
Seric, Anthony 308
Shanel, Tarik 33
Sharp, Debbie 162
Sharp, Phil
Australia v Croatia 2006 309
calf injury 286–287
Euro 2000 162–163
Gerrard incident 228
nominated for World Cup 2006 273, 275
Paraguay v Colombia 2001 199
Roma v Real Madrid 2001 194
Slovenia v Russia 2001 192
three yellow cards incident 322
World Cup 2002 215–218
World Cup 2006 283–284, 286–288, 290, 292, 298, 304–305
Sheffield United FC
demotion to Football League 144
FA Cup semi-final 2003 140–143
promotion to Premier League 145, 147
Sheringham, Teddy
Q&A session 67
Worthington Cup Final 2002 203
Shevchenko, Andriy
outstanding player 73
World Cup 2006 302
Shield, Mark
three yellow cards incident 314–315, 317
World Cup 2006 287, 289, 300
Shipperley, Neil 233
Short, Craig 145
Silvestre, Mikael 261
Simic, Dario
giving shirt to Poll 39
three yellow cards incident 313
&
nbsp; World Cup 2006 310
Simon, Carlos 316
Simunic, Josip
Australian heritage 308
giving shirt to Poll 39
three yellow cards incident 2, 309–311, 313, 321, 323
World Cup 2002 224
Sinclair, Trevor 187
Sissou, Dr Panikos 362
Smith, Alan 57
Sodje, Sam 70
Soldado, Roberto 49
Song Billong, Alexandre 43–44
Southgate, Gareth
FA Cup Final 2000 87
feud with Warnock 147
Spirrin, Alex 189
Srna, Darijo 308
Staker, Gary 16, 175
Staverton Park conference
centre 178–184, 270–271
Stott, Kevin
three yellow cards incident 323
World Cup 2006 292
Strickland, Chris 300
Striegel, Eugene 312
Styles, Liz 50
Styles, Rob
referees’ group meetings 182
stag night 278
support for Poll 242
three yellow cards incident 315–316
UEFA Cup semi-final 2007 50
Tanner, Steve 41
Taylor, Gordon
Arsenal v Manchester United 2005 261
Savage toilet incident
Taylor, Jack
views on biased referees 82
World Cup Final referee 327, 339
Taylor, Paul 122
Tennant, Stan 147
Terry, John
acknowledgement of Poll 41
allegations against Poll 20–21, 23, 33–36, 61, 251
changeable attitude towards
Poll 56–57
Chelsea v Manchester United 2007 56–57
conflict with Poll 3
Drogba disallowed goal
incident 14, 17–18
Euro 2004 244
Mourinho swearing incident 61–62
penalized by FA 35–36
Poll’s views on 36
sent off by Poll 15–17, 20–21, 27, 33, 63
Tottenham v Chelsea 2006 14–15
Thomas, Stjepan 309, 311
Tingey, Mike
fitness problems 275
nominated for World Cup 2006 273
UEFA Cup Final 2005 265
Titcombe, Adrian 86
Tomlinson, Clare 182
Tonge, Michael 141
Tottenham Hotspur FC 10–11, 13–21
Totti, Francesco 217
Traore, Djimi 40
Turner, Glenn
Australia v Croatia 2006 309
nominated for World Cup 2006 273, 275
Olympique Lyonnaise v
Barcelona 2001 198–199
support for Poll 2
three yellow cards incident 317, 322
UEFA Cup Final 2005 265
World Cup 2006 283–284, 286, 288, 292, 340–305
UEFA Cup Final 2005 263–265
van der Ende, Mario 276
Vieira, Patrick
Arsenal v Liverpool 2000 254
Arsenal v Manchester United 2004 257
Arsenal v Manchester United 2005 259–261
Arsenal v Newcastle 2001 256
Euro 2000 165
giving shirt to Poll 229
Highbury tunnel incident 73, 259–260
sent off by Poll 254
Vieri, Christian 217–220
Walton, Peter 17
Warnock, Neil
abusing players 145–146
abusing referees 134
criticism of match officials 143–146
FA Cup semi-final 2003 140–143
feuds 147
fined by FA 144–145
sent off by Poll 145–147, 278
Webb, Howard 253
Wenger, Arsène
aggression towards referees 59
Arsenal v Chelsea 2004 250
Arsenal v Manchester United 2005 251, 258–261
attitude towards Poll 254
rivalry with Ferguson 247
talking to referees 43
Weston, Matt
fitness coach 170
heart monitors 175–176
individual training
programmes 171
mock fitness tests 275
referees’ group meetings 179–180
support for Poll 362
three yellow cards incident 317
Whitehead, Nick 81–82, 84
Wiley, Alan
FA Cup semi-final 2003 142–143
support for Poll 242
Willard, Gary 17
Williams, Harry 133
Williamson, Ian 152, 362
Wilson, Ben 317
Winter, Jeff
Wolstenholme, Eddie 182
World Cup
2002 212–224
2006 281–328
Worthington Cup Final
2002 127, 20
2004 232–237
Worthington, Nigel 147
Wright, Kelly 268
Wright-Phillips, Shaun 58
Yeboah, Justice 298
Yerby, Martin 69
Yoshida, Toshimitsu 274
Young-joo, Kim 223
Zhirkov, Yuri 265
Zidane, Zinadine
outstanding player 73
giving shirt to Poll 229–231
Real Madrid v Borussia
Dortmund 229–230
Zola, Gianfranco 87
About the Author
‘Roman Abramovich is rich enough to have bought
Chelsea and, if he wanted, he could select himself
to play at centre-forward. But he could not
referee a Premiership match, because that is
something you can’t buy’
G Poll
‘If it doesn’t kill you, it will make you stronger’
Craig Mahoney,
referees’ sports psychologist
Credits
All photographs supplied courtesy of Graham Poll with the exception of
the following: Action Images 7 (top right), 8 (top left); Empics/PA Photos
7 (top left), 7 (bottom); Getty Images 7 (centre); Reuters 6 (bottom left);
Tracey Murrell (www.tracey-murrell.com) 8 (bottom).
Copyright
HarperCollinsPublishers
77–85 Fulham Palace Road,
Hammersmith, London W6 8JB
www.harpercollins.co.uk
First published in 2007 by HarperSport an imprint of HarperCollins London
1
© Graham Poll 2007
The Author asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins eBooks.
ePub edition September 2008 ISBN-9780007279982
About the Publisher
Australia
HarperCollins Publishers (Australia) Pty. Ltd.
25 Ryde Road (PO Box 321)
Pymble, NSW 2073, Australia
http://www.harpercollinsebooks.com.au
Canada
HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.
55 Avenue Road, Suite 2900
Toronto, ON, M5R, 3L2, Canada
http://www.harpercollinsebooks.ca
New Zealand
HarperCollinsPublishers (New Zealand) Limited
P.O. Box 1
Auckland, New Zealand
http://www.harper
collinsebooks.co.nz
United Kingdom
HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.
77-85 Fulham Palace Road
London, W6 8JB, UK
http://www.harpercollinsebooks.co.uk
United States
HarperCollins Publishers Inc.
10 East 53rd Street
New York, NY 10022
http://www.harpercollinsebooks.com