Geoff Hurst, the Hand of God and the Biggest Rows in World Football

Geoff Hurst, the Hand of God and the Biggest Rows in World Football
Graham Poll

Ex-referee and now fearless writer and football pundit, Graham Poll is no stranger to controversy. His latest book is an entertaining and provocative reappraisal of the major incidents in World and English football down the years – from Geoff Hurst’s goal in ‘66, through Maradona’s ‘Hand of God’ to the infamous Battle of the Bridge in 2009.Graham Poll, England’s highest profile referee of the last two decades, refereed over 400 Premiership games, involving more than 1.5 million spectators, and at two World Cups, placing him at the centre of some of the most controversial incidents in football.So what does Poll make of some of the biggest rows in English and World football down the years? Would modern referees have reached different key decisions? What can the game learn from the mistakes of history?In this follow-up book to Seeing Red, Poll’s bestselling memoirs, we get an informative, frequently provocative but always entertaining romp through the pages of football history and the major incidents that sent shockwaves through the game. The book revisits in startling clarity all those much talked about football moments that continue to be the topic of pub debate among football fans the world over – and turns everything on its head.What was the real reason for the linesman giving Geoff Hurst’s ‘goal’ in 1966 at Wembley? In the infamous Maradona ‘Hand of God’ game, why should the behaviour of Argentine players have helped the ref disallow the goal? How does Kim Milton Nielson, the official who red-carded David Beckham against Argentina in the 1998 World Cup, view the decision now? And was video technology used to 'convict' Zinedine Zidane of his World Cup Final head-butt?Framed with other fascinating football facts, personality profiles and colourful anecdotes, these stories and more – including football's most recent controversies – provide a rich seam of material for Graham Poll, in his usual no-nonsense style, to set the topical football agenda and to enrich our knowledge and understanding of the beautiful game.

Geoff Hurst, The Hand Of God And The Biggest Rows In World Football

Graham Poll

Copyright (#ulink_dbb25c8d-4970-5e25-8de6-75e2e8c0e48a)

HarperSport

An imprint of HarperCollinsPublisher Ltd. 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk/)

First published in September 2009

Copyright © Graham Poll 2009

Graham Poll asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

A catalogue record of this book is available from the British Library

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this ebook on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins ebooks

HarperCollinsPublishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content or written content in this ebook has been included or removed in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication

Source ISBN: 9780007313747

Ebook Edition © OCTOBER 2009 ISBN: 9780007343669

Version: 2016-09-19

I appreciate and thank Julia, Gemma, Josie and Harry for their support but dedicate this book to the man who introduced me to football, refereeing and life—Henry James Poll, aka ‘Big Jim’, aka my dad.

Table of Contents

Cover Page (#ue0d89c95-f66c-5629-9403-2d0b19fe2d70)

Title Page (#u9728d366-747d-522e-a680-1de89e25d626)

Copyright (#uda6dc1c9-b0cd-5be2-907e-e7a428f17a84)

Dedication (#u2aff2152-5a96-5dbc-82f0-dd7d63cf2a69)

Introduction (#ud5824214-c96f-5d2a-b5a0-fbbf87b28b0b)

1-Reputations on the Line (#ubbbd626f-a7fa-536c-926f-a4fa501e9fe5)

2-Zidane Heads for the Dressing Room (#ud41b50f0-4d02-5b40-a915-5c4a6c9f17cb)

3-A Big Hand For Maradona (#u2bf57436-354f-5fc9-82e8-75eabdde95a4)

4-Schumacher's Crime of the Century (#litres_trial_promo)

5-Going by the Book (#litres_trial_promo)

6-A Tale of Two Penalties (#litres_trial_promo)

7-Beckham's Hanging Offence (#litres_trial_promo)

8-The Vegetable Patch (#litres_trial_promo)

9-Flagging in Japan (#litres_trial_promo)

10-My German Lesson (#litres_trial_promo)

Keep Reading (#litres_trial_promo)

Index (#litres_trial_promo)

Acknowledgments (#litres_trial_promo)

Also by Graham Poll (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)

INTRODUCTION (#ulink_34875635-c8a6-561b-9680-173e07975c26)

On 22 June 2006, in the World Cup in Germany, I showed the yellow card to an Australian-born player twice but did not send him off.

in the World Cup in Germany, another referee showed his yellow card twice to an Australian player and did not realize. It was the same mistake, in astonishingly similar circumstances, precisely 32 years earlier—but what happened next was very different.

In my match, Australia versus Croatia in Stuttgart, I showed Josep Simunic two yellows but later sent him off, belatedly, after brandishing a third yellow at him. Hardly a day goes by, still, without my having to hear people making what they think is a joke about it.

In the 1974 game, Australia versus Chile in Berlin, the referee was Jafar Namdar, from Iran. He cautioned Australia’s Ray Richards in the first half and then, six minutes from the end of the game, booked Richards again for time-wasting. Namdar did not get his red card out. Instead, he trotted away, unaware he had now cautioned Richards twice.

Up in the stand, the Welsh referee Clive Thomas was watching. He realized the mistake and made it his business to find a FIFA official to point out what had happened. The official hurriedly told another FIFA man, who dashed down to the side of the pitch and informed the nearest linesman. Cue some frantic flag waving. Eventually, although four minutes had passed since referee Namdar had shown the second yellow card to Richards, he showed him the red.

If only someone—anyone!—had got the message to me 32 years later. If only someone had written a book about World Cup controversies after 1974; perhaps I would have read it, learned, and lived happily every after.

Now I have written that book. I have looked at ten major controversial incidents from different World Cups. I have examined them from a modern perspective, compared them with very recent controversies in the Premier League, and discovered how the game has changed, how refereeing has changed—and how some things have not altered at all.

But this is not a refereeing book. It is a football book, because I am passionate about the game and I hope that this book will enable anyone who shares that passion to notice more of what goes on during games. I hope it helps interpret events with a deeper perception. For example, did petty rivalry between the match officials help Diego Maradona get away with the ‘Hand of God’ goal he punched in against England? And why, when I was refereeing, did I sometimes deliberately give a foul for one team or find a reason to book a player from the other team?

I’ll clear up those and many other mysteries and explode some of the myths of the game as well. Then, the next time the bloke behind you at a match shouts, ‘You don’t know what you’re doing,’ at a ref, you’ll be informed enough to decide whether the spectator is correct!

So that is what this book is. Now let me tell you what it is not. It is not me saying, ‘I wouldn’t have done that,’ or, ‘I would have done it this way.’ After all, who am I to sit in judgement on World Cup referees after what happened to me? But writing this book, and really scrutinizing all the incidents, ancient and modern, has been a learning process for me. I hope reading it is stimulating for you. Anyone interested in football can gain knowledge from looking at its major controversies. By increasing our understanding, we can all enhance our enjoyment of football.