Product Description

The most high-profile referee this country has ever seen, the controversial and opinionated Graham Poll, exposes the myth that referees are the game's silent men, and opens the lid on the shocking and often unbelievable world of football that few outsiders get to see. Fully updated paperback edition with new chapters. Seeing Red is Graham Poll's incisive insight into football from his prime position as the man in black, the one in control, the eye that sees all. A Premier League referee since 1991 and with ten years as an international referee, Graham Poll has handled some of the toughest games in the Premiership involving Arsenal, Manchester United, Liverpool and Chelsea, as well as European Championships and World Cups -- in total over 1500 matches. What is it like to referee the biggest matches in international football? What really goes on between the players in the tunnel before a match and in the dressing room after? Who are the nastiest footballers? And the funniest? Who is the smartest manager? And are the bureaucrats ruining the beautiful game? Controversial and opinionated, Poll has crossed swords with some of the biggest names in world football and shares private conversations with the likes of Alex Ferguson, Jose Mourinho, Sepp Blatter and Steve McClaren, and the inside story behind controversial incidents involving Roy Keane, David Beckham, Patrick Vieira and current England captain John Terry, among others. Poll also talks about the infamous 2006 World Cup match when he failed to send off a Croatian player after three yellow cards in a crucial tie against Australia, returning home early in disgrace and with his career in meltdown. The games, the players, the managers, the suits -- the most outspoken referee in the modern game tells it as it really is.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #79979 in Books
• Published on: 2008-06-02
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 384 pages

Review
'Undoubtedly Graham Poll has been this country's top referee over the past ten years' Sir Alex Ferguson 'England's No 1 match official has lifted the lid on the disillusionment shared by many colleagues' Daily Mail 'Poll's fascinating response to years of criticism as one of England's top officials is far more interesting than the standard fare trotted out by most players these days - it also evokes the rarest of things in a football fan: sympathy for the referee.' 442 Magazine 'Poll's story is an interesting one. His behind-the-scenes material is frequently insightful and often funny.' Birmingham Post

About the Author
Graham Poll was born in 1963. A one-time employee of Nike -- where he turned down a Sales Directorship to pursue a refereeing career -- he has over 27 years of experience as an FA Premier League and international referee. As well as refereeing the 2006/07 UEFA Cup final, he has been the English representative at two World Cups and Euro 2000, and has handled games from the Bernebeu to the San Siro, and from Old Trafford to Stamford Bridge. He retired from professional refereeing in the summer of 2007. Mick Dennis has worked as sports editor of the Evening Standard and football correspondent for the Daily Express. In his spare time, he is also a football referee.

Customer Reviews

So you think you know Graham Poll?
Well let me tell you, you don't! This is a terrific book, from both footballing and non-footballing point of views. This is not one of your typical footballing biography's. It has pace, pathos and literal integrity. A real page turner, full of mixed emotions that will have you welling up, laughing out loud and outraged within a single page.

Seeing Red reveals not only the true face of football, from grass roots level to Fifa; but the complete chaoses, greed, incompetence and utter nonsense that surrounds the 'professional' game today.

A man obviously driven by passion, personal achievement, and a complete love of football (to almost obsessive proportions); Poll takes us through his 26 year career and towards the ultimate outcome of his 2006 World Cup. The dispear he suffered both personally and professionally in front of the worlds press, is here for all to witness, as well as the motivation he needed to get back on the pitch only a few weeks later. A real, real human story. Loved it, and so did my mum!

The referee's a banker!
Every football fan has an opinion about Graham Poll, and none of them favourable! But this book introduces a very different man from the one we thought we knew when he was the country's top referee.
He is funny, self-deprecating and very human. Well, he is in this book.
Of course it tells the story of his infamous three-card trick at the World Cup, but builds up to it in such a way that, when it happens, the reader can understand what a devastating blow it was for Poll.
So this is not only a football book. It is a story about striving to achieve something and then having to deal with humiliating failure.
But of course it is a football book as well, and gives revealing glimpses behind the scenes fo the game.
Chelsea supporters should definitely read it. They might think very differently about their captain and manager.

Poll,s position
Graham Poll winds up a lot of football fans , mainly because they perceive that he was more interested in being the star of the show than the players, though when you are refereeing Robbie Savage I think that's fair enough but more about the richly bouffanted Savage later. This perception is shared by a fair few managers as well , such as Neil Warnock which is bit rich coming from him .Yet I,ve always thought he was a good ref and seemed a decent bloke and this book confirms I was right. In fact it's fair to say that this book and his measured performances on Score and Football Focus have made me really warm to the guy.
Seeing Red could be considered an educational book as it opens up the readers eyes to the requirements needed to be a professional referee. It also points out that a lot of the criticism received by referee's is based on misunderstandings of the rules and that even top pundits are not adverse to this. There is also lots of meandering about UEFA and FIFA politics and his striving to get to the top of the refereeing ladder which is all a bit dull in truth. So to some extent this is a fairly dry book.
However it's worth persevering with the more mundane sections to get to the real juicy stuff. Thus Poll sheds light on his dealings with players and managers. His fractious relationship with Jose Mourinho who he feels modelled Chelsea in his own image turning them into the snarling bad losers they are. John Terry's behaviour , as portrayed in this book , underlines his unsuitability as England captain, while David Beckham and Steven Gerrard seem to be thoroughly decent chaps. Which is not something you could claim for Robbie Savage. As if the hair, thuggish on field demeanour and general air of gittishness weren't enough Poll tells the tale of toiletgate and further confirms, if indeed it needs confirming , that Savage is a bell end of considerable magnitude. There are also terrific anecdotes about, Neil Warnock , Roy Keane , Patrick Viera, Alex Ferguson and fellow refs Paul Durkin and Pierre Luigi Collina .
Inevitably great swathes of the text are taken up by the incident that will unfortunately define Poll's career- the three yellow cards he gave to Croatia's Josip Simunic , an incident he refers to as his "indelible tattoo". During a chapter done in diary form from his time at the 2006 World Cup in Germany there is a detailed explanation on the incident and it's ramifications for Poll.
Seeing Red isn't the most entertaining book on football, indeed it's not the most entertaining book by a referee( That's "Oh Ref" by Pat Partridge) but it does cast it's writer in a new light which is partly what autobiography's are all about. It answers fairly and squarely all the claims that Poll was more interested in the limelight than in doing the job he was paid to do. Like i said at the start he comes across as an amiable grounded bloke . Which is more than can be said for most players and managers.