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LONDON, July 4 - The referee who sent off
England's Wayne Rooney during Saturday's World Cup
quarter-final loss has said he was not influenced by protests
from the Portuguese players. Rooney was shown a red card in the 62nd minute for a clash
with Ricardo Carvalho. "It was violent play and therefore he got a red card,"
Argentine referee Horacio Elizondo told Tuesday's edition of
Britain's Times newspaper. Portugal's Ronaldo rushed 40 metres to the referee,
apparently to demand a card for Rooney who had battled his way
through two players and trod on Carvalho's groin as he tried to
disentangle himself. Rooney pushed Ronaldo, his Manchester United team mate, who
was captured on TV cameras winking at his bench as the England
forward walked off the pitch having been dismissed. "People can say what they want but this had absolutely no
influence," Elizondo said. "In general I don't pay much attention to that sort of
thing because I don't care about the pressure on my shoulders
during a match. CLEAR RED "For me it was a clear red card, so I didn't react to the
Portuguese players. There was pushing and shoving on both sides
but for me it wasn't a reason to caution anybody." Elizondo went on to say that England coach Sven-Goran
Eriksson had said he had been right to send Rooney off. "Sven-Goran Eriksson went into the locker room after the
match and congratulated me for an excellent performance and
said that I was right to send Rooney off because it was rough
play." England lost the match on penalties. Rooney was quoted by British media on Monday as saying he
was 'gobsmacked' to have been sent off. "I want to say absolutely categorically that I did not
intentionally put my foot down on Carvalho," the 20-year-old
said. "When the referee produced the red card I was amazed --
gobsmacked. "I bear no ill feeling to Cristiano but am disappointed he
chose to get involved," Rooney added.
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