Graham Poll believes the Football Association have 'lost
the will' to defend referees from attacks by clubs and players. The
controversial official has decided to quit, citing the FA's lack of
support after a bust-up with Chelsea last season as a major factor
in his decision. Poll dismissed Blues and England captain John
Terry for two bookings last November, and the defender later
claimed the referee had changed his reasons for the sending-off,
while it was also suggested he had wanted to 'teach Chelsea a
lesson'.
"The World Cup situation wounded me badly, but we patched that up
and the (referees' body) PGMOL got me back refereeing and
refereeing well again," Poll told the BBC's Inside Sport programme
in an interview to be aired on Monday. "But the FA, by not
supporting me, and therefore other referees, have made that wound
impossible to repair." And Poll slammed the FA under Barwick for
being less determined to promote respect for referees. He added:
"When (former chief executive) Adam Crozier was in charge of the FA
and there was a situation between Roy Keane and Andy D'urso, they
called together some senior referees and managers and had a
brainstorm to see how they could avoid it happening. "There is no
will at the FA any more to do that sort of thing, it's just 'they
will be fine' - they take us for granted and you can't speak out.
"If you speak out you get in trouble."
Poll believes punishments meted out to players, managers and clubs
for indiscretions against referees are often negligible and claims
it is high time that more stringent action was taken. He added:
"Chelsea do what they do and other clubs have done what they've
done because they are allowed to. "If you see an unruly child you
don't blame the child you blame the parent. "In this instance to FA
are the governing body, the custodians of the game, and it's their
job to make sure their children behave themselves. "If they are
unruly they should bring them back into line. "Clubs will push to
see how far they go before the custodians come down and say 'that's
too far now, there's a line there'.
"John Terry was and still is England captain and so they were left
with a confrontation between the England captain and an English
referee. "It shouldn't be that, it should be, whoever the player
is, if they have done something wrong they should be dealt with
properly. "And these days a fine of £10,000 for John Terry, it
would hurt me severely, but he can earn that by going to a training
session."
Poll believes criticism of referees is inevitable, but insists that
the suggestion an official might have an ulterior motive is simply
unacceptable. "If players call you a liar and make up stories about
you, saying you said one thing there and a different thing there,
which is completely untrue, your intent is called into question -
and the one thing a referee must have is integrity," he argued.
"When Brian Barwick phoned me I said this is not about Graham Poll,
this is about 27,000 referees who go out week after week and have
to battle to keep their integrity intact. "You really should get
hold of me and say 'come on guys', no-one should question intent.
"If you say he gave a penalty that wasn't, fine, but don't say he
gave the penalty because he doesn't like us or that he would have
given it to Manchester United."
Barwick, who was supportive of Poll after he was criticised for
showing Josip Simunic three yellow cards in a match during the 2006
World Cup, was disappointed with the comments from England's top
referee and insists he does not understand why Poll is singling him
out for blame over a disciplinary process which, as chief
executive, he has no part of. "I did speak to Graham Poll at the
time of the Tottenham-Chelsea Premier League game. I explained how
the FA's disciplinary system worked even though I am not,
understandably, directly involved in individual cases, and how we
could not comment publicly while a case was ongoing to avoid
prejudicing the outcome," he added. "I am extremely disappointed
that Graham does not feel the system supported him. After all, in
the case he has highlighted, John Terry was charged with improper
conduct and fined by an independent commission who did say,
publicly, that they were disappointed that the integrity of a
referee had been called into question.
"Finally, while I am very disappointed that Graham has chosen to
air these views about the FA through the media, I would like to
recognise his many years at the top level and his significant
contribution to refereeing in this country. "I, and everyone at the
FA, remain committed to recruiting more referees, retaining and
developing them and improving respect for the challenging and vital
job they do."
