20 Facts About Graham Poll

Graham Poll was born on 29 July 1963 and is an English former football referee in the Premier League.

Graham Poll was the English representative at two World Cups and UEFA Euro 2000, and refereed the 2005 UEFA Cup Final.

Graham Poll continued to referee in the Premier League, Champions League and on international games, but said he would not allow himself to be nominated to represent the FA at any tournament finals as he felt he had had his chance.

Graham Poll took up refereeing in 1980, progressing from the Isthmian League to become a Football League assistant referee in 1986.

Graham Poll took charge of international matches, refereeing at FIFA and UEFA tournaments such as Euro 2000, where Graham Poll took charge of France versus Czech Republic, and Norway versus Slovenia in the group stages.

The ball bounced into Liverpool's net, but Graham Poll disallowed the goal, claiming that he had already blown the whistle to end the game.

The television slow-motion pictures proved that this was incorrect, and after retiring in May 2007, Graham Poll confessed that disallowing the goal had been a mistake that he regretted.

Graham Poll refereed the Italy versus Croatia game at the 2002 FIFA World Cup, played on Saturday 8 June 2002.

Graham Poll had a busy game, as there were forty-two fouls, three goals scored, two goals disallowed, and two bookings.

Graham Poll was the only English referee at the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany.

Graham Poll stated that he had erred in his second booking of Simunic, marking his card with the correct number but in the wrong column due to Simunic's Australian accent, meaning he booked Australia's Craig Moore instead of Simunic.

On 28 June, Poll was named as one of 14 officials dismissed by FIFA from the remaining World Cup 2006 matches following his error in the Croatia v Australia match.

Graham Poll retired from international tournament finals football on 29 June 2006, citing the error as the reason.

Graham Poll continued to referee in the Champions League and on international games, but said he would not allow himself to be nominated to represent The FA at any tournament finals.

Graham Poll made several appearances on the football radio show World Soccer Daily, where he was typically asked to provide a view from the point of the referee whenever major controversial issues occur.

Graham Poll featured weekly on Chappers Premier League Podcast alongside Mark Chapman and Kevin Day.

Graham Poll featured in the Daily Mail where he spoke on officiating at the highest level, talking about decisions referees have to make.

Graham Poll appeared regularly as a pundit on Setanta Sports Football Matters show hosted by James Richardson and Rebecca Lowe.

Since 2009, Graham Poll has appeared as a regular news paper reviewer on Sky News Sunrise, and as a writer for DailyMail.

Graham Poll is a QPR Supporter Graham Poll ran in the London Marathon on 13 April 2008, finishing in a time of four hours and 20 minutes.