On the Premiership: Graham Poll is not the sort of character who naturally invites sympathy. England's most infamous referee has a penchant for self-promotion which sits uneasily with the adage that the best officials make their presence felt while remaining unnoticed. Indeed, his preening and posturing suggest he is the sort of man best avoided at parties.
That, however, cannot excuse the opprobrium aimed at him in the last seven days, which has included accusations of bias, lying, incompetence and attention-seeking. The disregard for the official - who, it is worth remembering, was the only English arbiter deemed worthy of Fifa's elite panel for last summer's World Cup - is now such that the BBC's analysis of his perfectly reasonable decision to disallow a Manchester City goal against Newcastle on Saturday began with Gary Lineker cattily observing, "That Graham Poll - he's always in the news, isn't he?"
Nobody can dispute Poll's occasional lapses in judgment. His mistakes, when they come, are glaring, and some supporters will feel he lost the right to be taken seriously when he failed to send off Croatia's Josip Simunic after showing him a second yellow card during the World Cup match with Australia in June.
But his most recent controversies have the unpleasant whiff of a vendetta about them, and closer analysis reveal more about Poll's accusers than the official. Particularly laughable was the claim by Everton forward James McFadden that he had been unjustly dismissed for calling the referee "a f****** cheat" during the acrimonious League Cup tie with Arsenal. The Scot's revelation - made with a completely straight face - that he had actually labelled him "f****** s****" vaporised his defence at a stroke.
McFadden was leaping aboard a bandwagon which had been set in motion days earlier by the Chelsea full-back Ashley Cole, who alleged that Poll had told his team-mates they needed "a lesson in discipline".
But even if he did make such a claim - and Poll has strenuously denied doing any such thing - is anyone outside Stamford Bridge arguing? In terms of stating the bleedin' obvious, suggesting Chelsea need to master the art of self-control is akin to accusing Arsene Wenger of having a persecution complex. This is a club who have been fined three times in the last two seasons for failing to control their players, while the manager, Jose Mourinho, should be granted his own parking space at Soho Square, such is the regularity of his meetings with FA disciplinary commissions.
Referees should never pursue an agenda against specific players or clubs, but Poll can hardly be blamed for allowing his patience to snap. The attitude towards match officials has escalated from discourtesy to outright disdain this season, with some of the Premiership's highest-profile figures guilty of treating the game they purport to love with contempt.
In the past month alone, Bolton's Kevin Nolan and David Moyes, the Everton manager, have been sent off for abusing referees, while a host of players - including Wayne Rooney on Saturday - have blotted their copybooks with foul-mouthed rants.
The tired excuses have been volunteered for this boorishness: it's a passionate game, we're just frustrated, refereeing mistakes cost us our jobs.
But this is simply not good enough. Rugby is also a passionate game, played by men who make Rooney look like a choir-boy, but their referees are treated with respect bordering on reverence. Any transgression is met with the severest sanctions, and that is the way it should be.
Football, though, clearly thinks otherwise. Premiership players are now being encouraged to dispute the decisions made by match officials, to practise the sort of "mental disintegration" so beloved of the Australian cricket team in a desperate bid to gain a psychological foothold.
It is wretched, loutish behaviour which sets an horrendous example not just to the youngsters who religiously imitate the actions of their idols in the playground and park, but to the coaches and players lower down football's food chain.
On Saturday, the FA Cup paid the price. A first round tie between Newport County and Swansea City descended into anarchy when the home manager, Peter Beadle, was dismissed from the dug-out for haranguing the fourth official, Alan Sheffield. Moments later, Sheffield collapsed to the ground with blood spurting from a head wound after being struck by a coin hurled from the stands.
What a pity that one of the season's most eagerly-anticipated weekends will be remembered for Beadle, his face puce and contorted with rage, being ushered down the tunnel and his subsequent, staggering refusal to condemn Sheffield's attackers on television.
But the Newport manager should not be overly concerned: such sneering contempt for the laws and spirit of football suggests that a long and fulfilling Premiership career is his for the taking.
