Graham Poll has paid the price for his yellow-card blunder by
being named among the 14 referees sent home from the World
Cup.
FIFA's referees committee today announced the 12 match officials
who will be retained to be in contention to take charge of the
remaining eight games of the tournament.
Poll, the official from Tring who booked the same player three
times during the Croatia v Australia match, is not among them and
neither is Russian Valentin Ivanov after he set a record by showing
16 yellow and four red cards during the Portugal v Holland
match.
They will both leave Germany on Friday and return home.
Meanwhile, Argentina's
Horacio Elizondo has been named as the referee in charge of
England's quarter-final against Portugal on
Saturday.
Elizondo created controversy during South Korea's match v
Switzerland when he over-ruled his linesman's offside flag and
allowed Alexander Frei to make it 2-0.
The official correctly spotted the ball had come off the leg of a
Korean defender but he was surrounded by angry players after
allowing the goal.
The 12 referees retained are: Toru Kamikawa (Japan), Coffi Codjia
(Benin), Benito Archundia (Mexico), Horacio Elizondo (Argentina),
Jorge Larrionda (Uruguay), Mark Shield (Australia), Massimo Busacca
(Switzerland), Frank de Bleeckere (Belgium), Luis Medina Cantalejo
(Spain), Markus Merk (Germany), Lubos Michel (Slovakia), Roberto
Rosetti (Italy).
Michel has been appointed to referee Germany v Argentina on Friday,
de Bleeckere will take charge of Italy v Ukraine on the same day,
while Cantalejo will officiate the Brazil v France game on
Saturday.
