Graham Poll's World Cup looks to be over after the referee blundered by giving one player three yellow cards in last night's match between Australia and Croatia.
Poll, England's most high-profile match official, will have his performance analysed by FIFA's referees committee before they decide what action to take.
He booked Josip Simunic three times, only sending him off on the third occasion. FIFA president Sepp Blatter said referees were human and would make mistakes, but that this one was inexcusable.
He said he could not understand why neither of Poll's assistants nor the fourth official picked up on the error either, especially when they are wired up to communicate via radio headsets.
Blatter said: 'I place my trust in the referees committee. I think they have the right amount of feeling to deal with this case.
'We should not forget that Graham Poll in his previous matches achieved fantastic things.
'Of course, we cannot excuse it but perhaps we should understand it.
'It simply should not have happened. We have had four officials and what is not understandable is that nobody intervened.
'I can't understand it. There are people there and on of them should have intervened and run on to the field and said, 'Stop, stop'.'
Blatter added: 'Naturally, referees are human beings and human beings make errors and we have to work against the quota of errors but total perfection does not exist and perhaps it's good because if perfection did exist there perhaps would not be enough discussion.'
The referees assessors will meet Poll today but no time has been set yet for a meeting of the referees committee, who will decide whether to keep him for the rest of the tournament.
FIFA communications director Markus Siegler said: 'We had a first in the history of the World Cup, unfortunately, when a player received three yellow cards - this is a little bit too much.
'In terms of the referee, this will be analysed and we cannot make any further statement on that.'
He admitted that, had Australia lost the game and gone out of the World Cup, they would have had grounds to request a replay.
As well as Poll, English assistant referees Philip Sharp and Glenn Turner, and the USA's the fourth official Kevin Stott and fifth official Gregory Barkey can also expect to learn that for them the World Cup is over.
