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.
