VIEW FROM THE BLUE

A sob story falling on deaf ears

The news that Graham Poll was calling it quits six years before the retirement age for officials in England's top flight came as blessed relief for Evertonians who have suffered more than most at the hands of one of the most controversial referees of the Premiership era.

From his rumoured leanings towards the dark side to his apparently insatiable ego, the "Thing from Tring" had become a name to be feared for Blues fans when it was his turn to officiate a game involving Everton.

And it's no surprise that an incident at Goodison Park was instrumental in Poll's decision to call time on his refereeing career ? his time as a referee was littered with infuriatingly mis-guided, incompetent or just plain wrong decisions in matches involving Everton.

His decision to show an automatic red card to James McFadden after just 20 minutes of a League Cup tie against Arsenal was, in Poll's words, his way of asserting his authority in the absence of any backing from the Football Association in the wake of his scandal involving Chelsea.

Three days before taking charge of the Everton-Arsenal game, Poll had sent off John Terry at White Hart Lane for next to nothing and stood accused of telling Frank Lampard that he dismissed Chelsea's captain because Jose Mourinho's Champions "needed to be taught a lesson". Angered by the FA Chief Executive, Brian Barwick's decision not to take the word of his "most experienced referee" as gospel, Poll put his foot down at the first sign of trouble in his next game, namely when McFadden called him a "fucking cheat" straight to his face. [McFadden will tell you he called him "shite" but I'm inclined to think that Poll's version is probably correct.]

On the face of it, Poll's sob story to the Daily Mail and in his forthcoming book has some merit. Yes, in this era of massively over-paid football stars, their hefty egos and seemingly untouchable status, match officials ? who earn considerably less for the same 90 minutes and are an object of ridicule because their humanity precludes them from ever being right 100% of the time ? are often put in an almost impossible position and don't get the support they would expect from their superiors.

Yes, he may have been trying to implement "preventative refereeing" with his warning to Lampard that he claims was so badly mis-construed and, yes, the letter of the recently imposed FIFA law states that foul and abusive language like that directed at him by McFadden should be met with an automatic dismissal.

There are numerous problems here, not least Poll's propensity to keep the focus on him and not the players, his apparent insistence on upholding the strictest laws of the game only when it serves as a grand-standing tool for his benefit, and his abysmal record where Everton are concerned.

After the honeymoon period of most new FIFA directives is over, the majority of referees take a more common-sense approach. Understanding that passions run as high as the stakes in the modern game and that testosterone-charged athletes in their 20s are given to insults, barbs and profanity, they exercise some welcome restraint. Indeed, how many Premiership players have been flashed an automatic red for swearing?

In McFadden's case, he wouldn't have had to yell an expletive-laden challenge to the referee's integrity had Poll not just refused to grant Andy Johnson as cast-iron a penalty as you're likely to see. Of course, officials make mistakes but Poll's errors have impacted Everton FC negatively so often and in such openly controversial circumstances that that many Blues fans branded him as biased without a shred of over-exaggeration.

It got to the point where you just knew that something controversial was going to happen when Graham Poll's name was on the back of the programme for an Everton game. Perhaps the most infamous incident came at Goodison Park in the 1999/2000 season when he took the easy way out of a difficult situation by disallowing a Don Hutchison "goal" in the last minute of a Merseyside derby.

With the scores level, Sander Westerveld took a free kick into Hutchison's backside and the rebound rolled into the Liverpool net. Poll is believed to have changed his story three times, claiming that Hutchison hadn't been the full 10 yards ?Westerveld took the kick anyway and the rules say play on ? then pointing to jostling among players, before finally settling on the insistence that he had blown for full time. As someone who was there just yards from the incident I can assure you he didn't blow the whistle until well after the ball had crossed the line.

Indeed, the higher profile the game ? and the number of big games he was allocated increased as his tenure lengthened ? the more Poll seemed to revel in taking centre stage, as evidenced by his record in Merseyside derbies. Indeed, this past season's Goodison derby in which Everton gave Liverpool a sound 3-0 hiding was almost as notable for the result as it was for the near absence of any controversial refereeing by Mr Poll ? in the same fixture the previous season hed seen fit to send off two Everton players.

Such was the perceived size of Poll's ego by the time that stormy London derby came around last November that few Evertonians would have challenged the accusations from Stamford Bridge that he had taken it upon himself to take Chelsea's players down a peg or two. It just seemed so characteristic of him.

As Paul Wilson sagely observes on The Guardian website, "The first rule of refereeing, of course, is that officials should be as inconspicuous as possible and enforce the rules without becoming the story." Graham Poll was a serial abuser of that golden rule and he will not be missed at Goodison Park next season.

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