The Referee

According to Graham Poll at last years world cup Peter Crouch was targeted by FIFA because of his fouling when he jumped.

Poll said: “At the World Cup last year, we were shown videos of England games.

“The head of refereeing at Fifa said, ‘Look at this big fella Crouch. He’s a real pain and getting away with too much. We need to mark him as a player we need to look out for’.

“We watched England’s warm-up games and it was pointed out the way he used his arms. I tried to defend him, being English.”

“You have to ask yourself as a ref if you are looking out for him all the time or only when he has done something that draws your attention,” added Poll.

“To prepare is fine but to pre-judge is not. And, lo and behold, Crouch did get booked in Germany.

“He has been picking up cautions since and is out of Saturday’s match.

“Players need to be aware that referees individually, or as a referee’s team, can be tactical as well.”

It doesnt suprise me that FIFA use crouch for examples and say we should be looking at this type of jump and watch out for these elbows.  Weve all seen these kind of training videos in our time.  I would like Graham Poll to have said if Crouch was the only player to be given focus or not.    It is clear that European officials do penalise Crouch more than week in week out in the Premiership.  However I dont know if its me but I only seem to notice this with England and not with Liverpool in Europe.   Maybe Liverpool adapt and realise they shouldnt keep pumping the ball up to him all the time!