Seeing Red by Graham Poll Page B

officials’ dressing room, ‘It was never a f***ing penalty.’ But then I probably did not help by replying, ‘I think we all know that.’
    Because I like John Gregory, I was saddened that his players made snide remarks to me during the 2000 FA Cup Final. When I refereed Villa again, on Boxing Day 2000 against Manchester United at Villa Park, they were at it again. United won 1–0 and a number of Villa players made references to me being a Chelsea fan. This time, so did Gregory himself. I put it down to the fact they were all still disappointed about losing the Cup Final.
    Then, in April 2001, I was in charge when Gregory took his Villa team to play Charlton at The Valley. I sent off Charlton defender Richard Rufus but awarded the home side a penalty. It was an exciting game which ended 3–3. Gregory again ribbed me about being a Chelsea supporter. I did not think I should have to keep putting up with that, so I asked the FA whether Gregory’s continued sniping amounted to some sort of offence. They told me to rise above it so I decided that I needed to tackle it myself.
    Gregory moved on and became manager of Derby. I next took charge of one of his matches in February 2002. It was at Pride Park, and Sunderland won 1–0. After the game, I went into the manager’s office and gave Gregory a Chelsea hat and scarf I had bought especially for the occasion. I stood in front of his desk and sang, ‘ Chelsea, Chelsea ’. It was my way of saying, ‘Look, I am not really a Chelsea fan, and we both know it, so let’s laugh about it.’ He did laugh. One–nil to Pollie.
    A few weeks later I refereed Charlton v Chelsea and Gregory sent a package to The Valley marked ‘for the attention of match referee Graham Poll’. It was brought to me by the Charlton secretary and I opened it in front of him. Inside were the same Chelsea hat and scarf. One–all.
    Then I refereed Derby v Leeds close to the end of the 2001/02 season. In my dressing room awaiting my arrivalwas a number 9 Chelsea shirt with ‘POLL’ printed on the back. Two–one to Gregory.
    Finally, just before I left for the 2002 World Cup, an envelope bearing Derby County’s badge arrived at my home. Inside were four photographs of that Chelsea shirt with my name on the back and each photo had a message scrawled on it – things like, ‘you wish’ and ‘in your dreams’. On the last one in the pile was the message ‘Really good luck in the World Cup, Pollie’. Final score: 3–1 to Gregory. Game over.
    Gregory lost his job at Derby sixteen months later and had a long period out of the game. When he did return to football management, in September 2006, it was at Queens Park Rangers, funnily enough. In one of our discussions about the daft allegation that I had been a Chelsea supporter I told him that my dad and I had watched him in his days as an outstanding player for QPR. We both liked him then. We both still do.

CHAPTER TEN
Collina, Dad and Me
    Pierluigi Collina, the bald Italian, was probably the best referee anywhere in the world in the last thirty or so years. At the start of the 2002 World Cup, when all the referees sat in a room and were told, ‘Aim for the highest. One of you thirty-six here will referee the World Cup Final,’ we all looked at Pierluigi. It was at that same World Cup that I learned how astonishingly meticulous his briefings were to his assistants.
    I was his fourth official for the game between Japan and Turkey. In the hotel room in which he told the assistants what he wanted from them, there was a whiteboard and he drew a pitch on it. I expected him to explain something straightforward – such as which areas of the field he wanted the assistants to make decisions. But on that whiteboard he wrote the names of both teams in their correct formations. He used the names he was going to call them if he needed to speak to them, rather