World Cup blunder ref ends international career

Jun 29, 2006, 19:14 GMT

London - Graham Poll, the English referee who blundered by booking Croatian defender Josip Simunic three times before sending him off at the World Cup, said Thursday he would no longer officiate international matches.

'Certainly what happened a week ago is something I deeply regret, it was inexcusable,' Poll told British broadcaster Sky.

'It's time to move on ... it's time for someone else from England to have a go,' he said.

Poll said he had been unable to sleep for two nights because of his mistake and that he had received nothing but kind words from colleagues and football's world governing body, FIFA.

The English referee had been among those tipped to officiate the tournament's July 9 final in Berlin but was sent home early after his blunder in Stuttgart a week ago, when he failed to red-card Simunic after he was booked twice and only showed him a red card after his third caution.

The match ended in a 2-2 draw and allowed Australia to get through to the round of 16. FIFA officials have conceded that Australia would have had grounds to request a replay had they lost the match.

'The first thing is disbelief,' he told Sky when asked to recall the incident. 'I couldn't replay the decisions in my head as I couldn't recall them. I was so fatigued in the 90th minute. I've seen the video and it doesn't look like Graham Poll refereeing.

'Now I've seen the DVD, it comes back over and over and over again in my mind. I think I'll wake up because it's a bad dream but it's not - it's reality,' he said.

Poll had previously refereed at the 2000 European Championships and the 2002 World Cup.