updated 3:50 p.m. ET June 29, 2006

BERLIN - English referee Graham Poll, who showed a Croatian player three yellow cards before sending him off in a World Cup match, is quitting international refereeing.

The experienced Premier League referee told Britain’s Sky Sports television Thursday he considered retiring from all soccer after his blunder, which meant a Croatian player stayed on the field three minutes longer than he should have against Australia.

The result, a 2-2 draw, was not affected and Croatia was eliminated. However, if the result had changed as a result of Poll’s blunder, one of the teams could have demanded a replay.

Poll and Russian referee Valentin Ivanov, who handed out a record number of cautions and red cards in the Portugal-Netherlands second-round match, were not selected for the quarterfinals, semifinals and final. They were among 14 referees who did not make the cut for the final stages.

FIFA president Sepp Blatter has criticized the standard of refereeing at the World Cup, saying it is inconsistent and that orders given to referees before the tournament to clamp down on foul play were only being followed inconsistently.

Poll said he decided to continue refereeing in the English Premier League, and the 42-year-old referee took complete responsibility for the error.

Minutes after sending off an Australia and a Croatia player in the 87th minute, Poll showed Josip Simunic a second yellow card, but did not send him off. He was shown a third yellow card after the game ended.

Zidane, Materazzi banned, fined for incident Borges: Zidane lucky he doesn't play in U.S. Opinion: U.S. has 2 coaching options | Vote Arena out after 8 years as U.S. coach Best XI: top players, your picks for World Cup   Slide shows: Hairdos |   Damsels |   Beckham   Images: Highlights, more | MORE COVERAGE

“Certainly what happened a week ago is something I deeply regret. Inexcusably, I made an error in law and most mistakes, most discussion, most controversy surrounds opinion, and they are things we can always debate.

“But what I did was an error in law and for that there can be no dispute. It wasn’t caused by a FIFA directive or because I referee differently than what I do in the Premier League,” Poll said.

Poll said he was exhausted for the last 10 minutes of a match marred by eight yellow cards, three red cards and four goals. During the game, he faced severe intimidation from some players.

Super Bowl slide shows EPA   Giant victory party See images of fans packing the Manhattan streets to celebrate the New York Giants’ Super Bowl win. AP   Super Bowl XLII Take a visual tour of the scene before, during and after the New York Giants' Super Bowl victory over the New England Patriots. Reuters High-def views of University of Phoenix Stadium Experience high-def interactive pictures of the site of Super Bowl XLII Win McNamee / Reuters   A man named Brady Take a visual tour of Patriots quarterback Tom Brady’s life, both on and off the field.   Hot QBs, hot times See images of NFL quarterback stars such as Tom Brady, Tony Romo, who are as popular off the field as they are on.

Poll said he did not realize he made a mistake until told after the match. Several sleepless nights and thoughts of retirement followed.

“The first two or three days you think about retirement, you think it’s all gone wrong, and you start to doubt your ability, but that didn’t last for too long. Because of 26 years of hard work and countless games that have gone extremely well — you know it’s probably been my best season ever — I will be back refereeing in the Premier League next season,” Poll said.

“It’s time for me to let go of the mistake — nobody got hurt from the error, nobody died ... What I did was a public mistake, but it didn’t affect qualification, it didn’t affect the outcome of the match.”

Poll has worked at the two previous World Cups and was also a part of the 2000 European Championship.

“None have gone right, none have worked for me, for various reasons,” Poll said. “We say in life one thing goes wrong it’s unlucky, if two things go wrong then maybe you’re really unlucky, but if it’s three then you have to look at yourself and say something isn’t quite right.”

MORE FROM SOCCER

Soccer Section Front

Theron hopes Cup can ‘impact’ S. Africa’s kids Romario arrested in child support case Officer gets 6 years in jail for 2007 death of fan US set to meet Panama in Gold Cup quarterfinals 2 Glasgow Rangers fans charged in attack on cops Slideshow: The life of Becks, on and off the field MLS scores, schedules, standings, more Vote: Who will be MLS champions? Scores from England, Spain, Italy, more MORE ON SOCCER Soccer Section Front   Add Soccer headlines to your news reader: