Referee deferred red

There doesn't seem to be nearly enough fuss about Graham Poll's blunder towards the end of the Croatia-Australia game last night. Josip Simunic was (correctly) shown a second yellow card but (incorrectly) allowed to remain on the pitch. It took a further offence after the final whistle for the English referee to brandish Simunic's third yellow card and finally show him the red. It was the most glaring of a series of errors and fussy decisions. The second yellow (and red this time) awarded Brett Emerton for a deliberate handball minutes after his first yellow seemed to owe more to a hamfisted attempt to even things up immediately after Simic's dismissal than a considered application of the rules. FIFA have apparently acknowledged that had Australia been knocked out, they would have grounds to request a replay. Yet it's arguably the case that Poll's handling of Simunic invalidates the entire match. If Australia would have had grounds for appeal, surely so do Croatia even if this particular incident appeared to favour them. After all the issue is whether the match was correctly refereed - and it apparently wasn't - not that the referee favoured one side over the other.

Comments

[Brian]

That was astonishing. Especially since Viduka asked Poll after the second yellow card if he shouldn't be sent off. You'd think Poll would've double checked at that point. Even aside from that, the way he managed the game was poor. Half the time, you didn't know what the call was or who was getting the card. Then again, it appears that he didn't even know either.

[Frank McGahon]

I thought when he sent off Emerton that he looked pretty flustered. Funny thing is he has a fairly decent rep in the Premiership but looked completely at sea last night.