Bad news for football fans everywhere. Graham Poll’s going to have cards in his hands again today. But don’t worry, they’ll only be birthday cards from the two (or maybe three - it’s so hard to keep count sometimes) people that the Thing from Tring didn’t annoy during his 26-year refereeing career.

Yes, on this day in 1963 Britain’s most high profile and controversial referee ever, Graham Poll was born. Poll refereed some of the biggest matches in football, such as the 2000 FA Cup Final, the 2005 UEFA Cup Final and was the English representative for the 2002 and 2006 World Cups. However, during this time he was constantly hounded by players, fans and the media alike, as he was widely seen as a serial match wrecker that carved to be the centre of attention. Poll oversaw 1,544 matches in his career, with only six of these ending without him flashing a card of some description.

The defining moment of Poll’s career came in the 2006 World Cup, when he famously gave Croatia’s Josip Simunic three yellow cards before sending him off. This was after he had already sent two players off and generally had a rotten game. After suffering international ridicule Poll immediately flew home from Germany and announced his retirement from international finals matches.



If Poll thought he could quietly reintegrate himself into domestic refereeing following the World Cup he was wrong. John Terry was on the receiving end of another of Poll special, as it was reported that he told the England captain that he needed to be “taught a lesson” when he sent him to an early bath. Days later he sent off Everton’s James McFadden for calling him a cheat.

Poor old Graham wasn’t even respected amongst his whistle-blowing peers. Commenting on a curious incident when Robbie Savage was caught short and used the referees toilet when Poll was officiating, ex-cardster Jeff Winter said “the referee in question was not one of my favourite people. In fact, anyone who craps in Graham Poll’s toilet can’t be all bad.”

See below for the finest moment of the man that the bulky Italian striker Christian Vieri described as “not even a division two official, but a village official.”

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