5 most ridiculous red cards in football history

#1. Josip Simunic vs. Australia, 2006

Another incident from the World Cup, 2006 this time, this one wasn’t ridiculous for the reason behind the sending off, but more for the debacle that surrounded it. English referee Graham Poll had more than enough reason to send off Croatia’s Josip Simunic in a group game against Australia, given the defender appeared to push him as the match ended. The problem was that Simunic should never have been on the pitch in the first place – he’d already been shown his second yellow minutes before!

Instead Poll awarded him an inexplicable third yellow card for the shove, leading to the inevitable red and the sending off. It was one of the biggest refereeing gaffes in football history and definitely, one of the most ridiculous sending offs. For his part, Poll admitted to his mistake, and also defended his assistants – who also missed the mistake – by claiming that the “buck stopped with him”. He also blamed it on mistakenly writing down the name of Australian Craig Moore for Simunic’s second booking, as the Aussie-born Simunic apparently spoke with a similar accent.

The excuse wasn’t enough to save Poll though and he was sent home as a laughing stock following the group stage, ending his dream of potentially refereeing in the final. He went on to retire from refereeing international football – quite understandably really. The incident remains – to the best of my knowledge – the only time that a player has received three yellow cards in one game.