Refereeing Snafus, Part I: Carding MadnessIn today's installment of World Cup trivia, I will begin a new subsection detailing some of the great refereeing snafus in the history of the global football showcase.
(A) Thrice Warned
For those among you who know the most basic rules of soccer, you know quite well that if a player receives two yellow cards, they combine for a red, and he's sent out of the game. Interesting then that a World Cup referee would be unclear on this point.
Having spent 26 years working his way from the smallest leagues in Britain to the World Cup, English referee Graham Poll retired less than a year after a single, but incredibly heinous, error. While referring a game in group stage of the '06 World Cup, Poll awarded Croatian footballer Josip Simunic three yellow cards before realizing his snafu and booting Simunic. Whoops.
(B) The Overzealous Russian
Russian referee Valentin Ivanov went a bit bats with the carding during a second round match of the '06 World Cup between Holland and Portugal.
In a game that, by World Cup standards, wasn't even particularly physical, Ivanov managed to toss out twelve yellow cards and four reds. Each team lost two players and more than half of the men on the pitch were cautioned.
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