The others were Toru Kamikawa of Japan, Benito Archundia of Mexico, Jorge Larrionda of Uruguay, Mark Shield of Australia and Coffi Codjia, a tax inspector from Benin in Africa.

Despite his experience, Poll was considered likely to go after his blunder that could have forced a replay of the first-round match between Croatia and Australia. He gave three yellow cards to a Croatia defender; a second caution should immediately be followed by a red card.

The game ended 2-2, enough for Australia to make the second round. If Australia had lost, it could have protested the result based on Poll's error.

Ivanov set World Cup records when he issued 16 cautions and four red cards in Portugal's 1-0 win over the Nettherlands. That promoted a stinging rebuke from Blatter, who told a television interview that Ivanov should have given himself a yellow card.