Graham Poll backs Scottish referees’ strike

Mr Poll, who refereed Premier League and World Cup matches before retiring in 2007, said his Scottish colleagues had reached the end of their tether because of the abuse they were receiving.

He said: “If you look in detail at what has happened in Scotland, my initial view was ‘you’re crazy to strike; you’re already the most unpopular people in Scotland’. But things are bad in Scotland and now I 100 per cent support the referees there. They’ve done the right thing. They’ve proved their point.”

“In Scotland, football is more than football.” Graham Poll

Mr Poll said football fans had been taking their cue from club managers in the way they treated referees. The situation north of the border was worse than in England, because “in Scotland, football is more than football”.

He said he was pleased that Polish match officials had shown solidarity with their Scottish colleagues by deciding not to travel to Scotland to referee this weekend’s matches.

“The referee family has stuck with them. The Welsh have said no, so have the Polish. It’s nice to see referees have stuck by them. I don’t believe a single English referee would have travelled up there in this case.”

Poles pull out

The Scottish Football Association (SFA) had been depending on Polish match officials for matches on Saturday and Sunday.

They pulled out today, forcing the cancellation of the First Division game between Greenock Morton and Falkirk, and the SFA told Channel 4 News other matches could also be affected if replacements were not found. Two Portuguese referees who were due to help out have tonight also returned home.

Ten matches have been postponed; none in the Scottish Premier League. Scottish referees say they have been intimidated by clubs and are calling on the SFA to take action to protect them.