The tournament had a record number of yellow and red cards, breaking the previous record set by the 1998 World Cup. Players received a record-breaking 345 yellow cards and 28 red cards, with Russian referee Valentin Ivanov handing out 16 yellow and 4 red cards in the round of 16 match between پورتوقال میلّی فوتبال تیمی and the هولند میلّی فوتبال تیمی, in a match known as the Battle of Nuremberg. Portugal had two players suspended for each of the quarter-final and semi-final matches, respectively. FIFA President سپ بلاتر hinted that he may allow some rule changes for future tournaments so that earlier accumulated bookings will not force players to miss the final, should their teams make it that far. The tournament also saw English referee قراهام پوْل mistakenly hand out three yellow cards to Croatia's یوسیپ شیمونیچ in their match against Australia.