It is a reprieve for Cristiano Ronaldo, the Portugal winger accused of deviously persuading Horacio Elizondo to dismiss Rooney on Saturday, but more fuel for those who wish to give England’s tyro short shrift for his ruinously short fuse.

Speaking to The Times outside his hotel in Frankfurt, Elizondo, the Argentinian in charge of England’s quarter- final defeat, confirmed that he sent off Rooney for lashing out with his boot and catching the defender in the groin, not for the 20-year-old’s push on Ronaldo. “It was violent play and therefore he got a red card,” Elizondo said.

Ronaldo seemed to exhort the official to take action against Rooney, then winked at the Portugal bench after the card was flourished, though both the Manchester United team-mates were keen to dismiss talk of a feud last night.

“People can say what they want, but this had absolutely no influence,” Elizondo, who had appeared unlikely to take any action until Ronaldo’s intervention, 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.

“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.”

As is standard practice, Fifa reviewed Elizondo’s performance and it is understood that the governing body was pleased with his handling of the match, making him a contender to take charge of the final. However, Ronaldo’s actions might have brought him a yellow card.

Andreas Wurz, the Fifa spokesman for referees, said that, as a rule, if a player exhorts a referee to produce a card, “that player must be cautioned. If the player says ‘book him, book him’, this is not fair play. This is unsporting conduct.”

Elizondo defended himself against accusations that he had failed to book several of England’s opponents for diving. “I got advice from Fifa’s referees committee that if there is a slight touch but it’s not a foul, then to say, ‘come on, get up’, and not give an immediate caution,” he said. “I only give yellow cards for clear diving and I didn’t think there was any.”

The referee also stood by his decision to make Jamie Carragher retake England’s fourth penalty during the shoot-out defeat, the Liverpool defender having his second effort saved after scoring with his first attempt. “I didn’t blow my whistle,” he said. “I had indicated from the first kick onwards to wait for the whistle.”

Elizondo is an avid fan of English football. “I’m always watching the Premier League on TV in Argentina and I know every single result from the first to the last game,” he said. “I watched Portugal’s previous four matches in this tournament so I’m well aware of their style of play and who’s in their line-up, that goes for both teams.

“In general I’m very satisfied with the spirit of fair play in the match. Sven-Göran Eriksson (the England head coach) went to the locker-room after the match and congratulated me for an excellent performance and said that I was right to send off Rooney because it was rough play.”

Urs Meier, the Swiss who disallowed Sol Campbell’s late header against Portugal at Euro 2004, was inundated with hate mail and death threats from England fans after a newspaper published his contact details, but Elizondo, a 42-year-old poetry-writing PE teacher, professed to be unworried if a similar scenario occurs.

“I’ve never thought about it and to be honest I don’t care,” he said. “If people or newspapers would like to create stories like that, it’s up to them. I really don’t care.”