It Wouldn't Happen In The Park
Dawn broke on the day of the Munich World Cup Final in 1974. Jack
Taylor, the designated referee, was sleeping soundly in his hotel room. The
Englishman was regaining his strength after the initial excitement and complications
that go with being appointed to officiate the most important international game
for four years. This man, butcher by trade and a widely recognised world-class
official, would wake in his own time, before calmly prepare himself for the
match of his life – the ultimate achievement for any referee.
By the time he had checked equipment, selected his whistle and placed it
with care into its case, left the hotel and arrived at the stadium, some
tension had naturally built up. After checking the match ball, briefing his
linesmen (there would be no communication problem here), checking team lists,
and examining boot studs, he was feeling tense and tummy nerves were felt. The
toss-up was with a commemorative ‘Wild Life Fund’ coin, a rather special idea
instigated by the Fund’s international patron at the time, Prince Bernhard of
the Netherlands. It was seconds before kick off and organization had been
perfect. Then from the corner of his eye, Taylor suddenly noticed a man run
towards the touchline where there was a certain amount of commotion.
The running man turned out to be Ken Aston, Chairman of FIFA’s Technical
Committee and responsible for the tournament’s referees. Like a picture
suddenly snapping into focus, Taylor took in the whole pitch – and could clearly
see that the four corner flags were missing!
On such an occasion, when organisation had been so perfect, when every aspect had been checked and
double-checked, how could this possibly happen?
Corner flags would never be forgotten in preparing
a junior team match in the park on a Sunday
morning! From up in the stands,
Ken Aston’s eagle eye had pinpointed, almost unconsciously, this amazing
blunder.
One man then proceeded to each corner of
the pitch and insert the missing flags; it was a
comical sight in the
circumstances. Taylor found he could now
relax; smiling outwardly and laughing inside, he blew the whistle and the 1974 World Cup Final was
under way.
A Brave Referee
The match started in an extraordinary way. The
crowd was hushed and Taylor claimed he
knew almost immediately that something was going
to happen in those early seconds which would
require a rapid and definite
decision. From the kick-off, the Dutch
strung together an attack of 17 passes; the crowd was delighted to see such sweet footballing
expertise and amazed there was not a single
German tackle until the ball was a yard inside the
penalty box. This was the incident that Taylor’s
instinct told him to expect, so he’d made sure he
was only three or four yards behind the play.
When Cruyff was floored in the
box, Taylor blew and pointed to the penalty spot. The stadium
erupted; within one minute of the
final commencing Taylor had
handed the Dutch a penalty.
The decision was correct and at the
moment it happened Taylor was able to be one hundred per cent certain.
Television and radio commentators were telling the world what a brave referee
this was, how right he was, asking their audience to imagine themselves giving such
a decision in Munich with the West German crowd breathing down his neck. But
Taylor was the first to say bravery didn’t come into it; that was the last
thing on his mind. To him this match, once it was under way, became the orange shirts
against the white, and he had awarded a penalty against the whites, for
according to the laws of the game, they had committed an offence which demanded
such retribution. Equally, should he have failed to carry out this honest
decision it would not have been through cowardice, he would simply have failed
in giving an immediate and decisive response to the offence. He would then have
let down not just FIFA but everything the international game and the World Cup
represents.
For a while now the match was exacting to officiate, and Taylor was soon
aware of the Germans’ planned tight marking of the Dutch, especially Vogts’
shadowing of Cruyff. This was a key pairing to watch and very soon Taylor was
convinced that should Cruyff have to leave the pitch for any reason, Vogts
would have followed him!
Taylor then awarded the Germans a return penalty. Television and film
have shown his decision to be correct, though at the time this totally
professional man was not totally convinced himself. Again, instinct told him it
was indeed an offence by the Dutch, to be punished with the ‘spot-kick’. But the
angle from which he saw the offence was not ideal.
However, he was executing the laws of the game in the correct manner,
for the German player was within the Dutch penalty area and although the ball
was two to three feet ahead of him, there was, or seemed to be, a definite
tripping offence committed – even attempting to trip would have sufficed.
After this incident the Dutch became tetchy and Taylor was stretched to
help the game flow and be as memorable as it turned out to be. The man deserved
to be regarded as a twenty-third player performing at the height of his
ability, but because he had to award two penalties out of the three match
goals, the media gave him as much coverage as any of the outstanding players.
Once again, though for the best of reasons, he was isolated as the ‘man in the
middle’. Perhaps it is only the average referee – as long as the game makes no
special demands - who can truly be absorbed and survive with little notice? But
then the average referee would not be chosen to scale such refereeing heights,
and World Cup matches do tend to make special demands!
Great Developments In Four Years
It has to be admitted that the overall standard of refereeing in the
1966 World Cup left a lot to be desired. The FIFA Referees’ Committee for this
hard and defensive tournament did not plan sufficiently well. In hindsight,
they knew they should have done, because the international scene since the 1962
Finals had been showing a demand for
firm and uniform application of
the laws. Sir Stanley Rous was aware of this and consequently so was FIFA, but time hadn’t developed
the standards required; poor organisation for the
arriving top 30 referees in England didn’t help.
Training facilities were supplied for them at Queens Park Rangers’ ground, but they only trained if they
wished to and overall they were
left to their own devices.
There was a shortage of interpreters to help any
kind of overall understanding
and this badly affected what few
talks were held before the tournament began. The men arrived just before the first matches so there was
little chance, with or without a language barrier,
of any feeling of comradeship. The
large group of British
referees didn’t help much, as they tended
to keep themselves very much apart. Probably they didn’t realise it at the time, nor were they
aware of looking at the game
solely through English eyes. Sadly,
they didn’t or couldn’t pay enough attention to the points of view of the foreign officiators, and
consequently communication between referees and linesmen during matches
suffered badly (the final itself being a prime
example).
It was the tournament of controversial bookings
and sending-offs: the Rattin
incident in the quarter-final, as well as English referee Jim Finney – much admired
internationally – sending off two Uruguayans, Troche the captain and Silva in the match against West
Germany. Finney had a police escort from the
pitch.
Brazil left the tournament
feeling that teams had been allowed to kick them out of World Cup glory, Uruguay and Argentina
packed their bags and left showing
considerable bitterness. By coincidence, in their trouble-strewn matches, it was a German and
an English referee that had
officiated at their dismissals. In
reality, blame could not be laid at the confused referees’ feet; it was lack of overall foresight,
for not enough thought had been given to the complications which
could and indeed did arise.
FIFA worked extremely hard in the intervening years to make sure Mexico would
not suffer in the same way in the organisation of referees, even if styles of
play continued to be dominated by hard defensive tactics. There was also the
worry of altitude and rarefied air to be taken into account by players and
referees alike.
Sir Stanley Rous had Ken Aston appointed as Deputy
Chairman of the Referees’ Committee in 1968, and he was to be responsible for
the organising and selection (with the Committee) of the thirty referees for
the coming tournament. This ex-player who, through injury, took up refereeing
at the age of 20
– he qualified in 1936 – took charge of the 1963 FA Cup Final (Manchester United versus Leicester
City), the 1961 Inter-Continental Final (Real Madrid versus Penarol) and the
opening match in the 1962 World Cup.
Aston had an amusing memory of this occasion, although
it was less than amusing at the time. Naturally there had been great excitement for the opening ceremony and
Aston had arrived at the stadium two hours before
the kick-off at three. At 2.20 he was still waiting for the selected
match ball, with correct weight and pressure and countersigned by the Referees’
Committee. Despite enquiries, by 2.40 no ball had arrived and at 2.55 he led
the teams out into the packed stadium with a sinking feeling — he wasn’t
carrying the match ball! During the next five minutes he called in a number of
the ‘kick-in’ balls from surprised players and desperately searched for a
‘possible’ amongst the tatty, leather puddings! He decided on one sad object
and the game got under way. Meanwhile, a FIFA representative was sent off to
purchase a ball and in the later stages of the game a spanking new one was finally
bounced onto the pitch.
For the difficult task that lay ahead, the
President had made a wise choice in selecting who had firm ideas of how to
achieve the required results that footballing nations and the media felt couldn’t be
accomplished. Aston’s views were in the main complementary to the President’s, so
he was given support and encouragement and installed as Chairman. Aston announced that
the concern for a high quality of refereeing during the tournament in the heat and suspect
atmosphere of Mexico would minimise the difficulties experienced in 1966. A bold statement which encouraged
him to remark, ‘I’m not like the man who was once conceited – I'm now perfect!”
In fact, it was this appointment that resulted in
refereeing ‘coming of age’ on international pitches. On reflection, Aston felt that in Mexico the
foundations of a good house were built, while Germany four years later added the
decorations!
Aston had decided that for the Mexican World Cup referees would be
welded into the seventeenth team, that communication problems would be resolved once and for
all, and that all 30 referees should work closely together. His desire was that
every man should be as highly trained as a boxer, superbly fit and able to
relax mentally whenever possible. He knew he would be dealing with men who
regarded themselves as professionals in attitude, application and dedication – honour
and the challenge being their just reward, for at the World Cup level the
selected arbitres had no official
association and were not paid one franc for match work. Two weeks before the competition
opened, all referees arrived at FIFA’s request in Mexico City. Apart from the
programme set by Aston and his colleagues, it was felt that acclimatisation was
also necessary. Indeed, it was also decided to carry out medical tests on the
referees every day. As it turned out, the feared high altitude caused few
problems, which surprised doctors who had warned of danger to the competing
players and concern for older referees, such as Aly Kandill from Egypt who was fifty.
As it was, oxygen was sometimes given to individuals in losing teams; but winners
usually managed brisk exits from the stadium and not a single referee called for
the aid of an oxygen mask.
For this tournament, every referee was given training
gear and track suits, and for the first time ever in a World Cup, a top coach
was appointed to make sure every member referee was physically at his peak. Dettmar
Cramer, was given the task. No referee was allowed to miss any of the training
sessions conducted in a first-class sports club which contained every facility
required. Cramer put every man through his paces and concentrated on building
him up, not reducing him to a gasping invalid. After training, a kick-about
game was held to build team spirit quickly developed, then lectures at a
conference centre equipped with all the electronic trappings to help overcome language
barriers, instant translation being available through headphones. After the lectures,
groups would
break up for seminars. The main languages used were French, English, German and Spanish, so the men joined groups
according to their language, to discuss and argue points raised in the
lectures. An example of how well this welding together of 30 men was
progressing and how comradeship quickly blossomed was the situation of Kandill
of Egypt and Klein of Israel. Being in the same seminar group, men from two
opposing and hostile countries were not likely to become bosom friends, and
relationships were strained. Yet by the fourth day tension had dropped away and
friendship through a common sporting interest developed.
Through these lectures, films and seminars, FIFA was asking the men to
express their views and say what they wanted. The approaches and
interpretations of South American refereeing was compared with European
standards and through discussion uniformity was agreed on in the application of
laws and co-operation between a referee and his linesmen. Additionally, a
special silent film of World Cup incidents had been shown early during this preparation
time. The men had watched it and were asked to discuss in theory how they would
cope, but in a real and practical way. A week later they saw the film again, this time
with sound – and the decisions overall were uniform with FIFA’s narration. FIFA then
sent the film to each competing nation, as well as a memorandum of all points
the referees had agreed on to every national coach. The memorandum was also given to the press. This was the
tournament in which FIFA had agreed with the referees to use yellow and red
cards, to let players
know clearly that they were being cautioned or sent off and alleviate doubts and confusions because
of language barriers. There would be no repeat of the ugly sending-off scenes
in the 1966 tournament.
This idea was borrowed from America, where it was
invented to cope with language difficulties caused by so many immigrant
players. Despite
all this, by the time the first match kicked off in Mexico City, it was still felt by some that
all the strict refereeing preparations would bear little fruit. It was the
complete opposite. The Mexico versus Russia match was not an exciting affair,
but Tschenscher kept it well in control and dealt out five yellow cards. In
reality all the work and preparation was immediately shown to be working and
the standard of refereeing was set. In this hot and temperamental land, not a
single player was sent off throughout the summer.
There have been and will continue to be many
excellent referees,
some great characters, and some that crowds have found it hard to hate. Take Arthur Ellis of England, who was
involved in the infamous ‘Battle of Berne’ and who, at one moment during the awful
scenes, literally dragged two players over the touch-line to cool off! Or
Armando Marques of Brazil, who may have been temperamental but is still a great
referee. For so many, it wasn’t the money that made a professional referee, it
was dedication – a theme Marques would agree on. This man was a showman and if
you didn’t know his name or the look of the man, you’d know who it was by his
habit of never blowing a whistle at the kick-off – he just waved a finger.
Jim Finney of England had a style of his own and
great common sense in handling players. His ‘style of simplicity’ was much
admired across the world. A more modern disciplinarian was Clive Thomas of
Wales, who let nothing go and at times ploughed a lone furrow as far as
footballing officialdom was concerned – but his results in the 1974 World Cup were
top marks in two matches. Much admired, however stern an image he presents.
There have been and hopefully will continue to be
the refereeing ‘diplomats’, calm, collected and always striving to let the game
flow. Their critics call out that these men just want a quiet life on the
pitch, but their results speak for themselves, They’ve also gained much
popularity. Leo Horn of the Netherlands and Istvan Zsolt of Hungary are
examples of such referees. Bobby Davidson of Scotland and Rudi Glockner of East
Germany are others recognised and recognisable for their achievements. Youssoupha
N’Diaye of Senegal – the ‘Black Pearl’ – was a new and striking referee to
reach the World Cup recognition in the 1970s. In 1974 he had one match in the
tournament and was excellent. Of course, at the time it was not unusual in Africa
for a referee to be imprisoned for a short while: if a president of one state
does not approve of a serious decision made by the official, it has been known
for a word to be spoken in the ear of the president of the offending referee’s
state, resulting in police waiting for the arrival of the referee’s homebound
plane and a quick escort to the local prison!
For every World Cup, officials will be selected
from FIFA’s vast list of recommended and internationally experienced referees –
it represents a pleasing problem that the list will be wide, including nominees
put forward by many young and progressing football nations. FIFA can comply
with their duty of producing the best, and their training work over the continents has, and
will continue
to produce a great number of talented ‘men you love to hate’. For watchers of
the game, arguments will always be endless on whether the man in the middle is
totally neutral – for every moment of the match – from the lower regions of
nations’ domestic football leagues to the exalted finals of a World Cup.
But for a first-class referee, the match will
always be the ‘reds’ versus the ‘whites’. He will see, decide and act,
impartially and honestly, and like any good player he will admit to himself his
mistakes and know whether his performance was good or bad. A good international
referee is a man of substance, educated and of a mature nature. Off the field
he must impress officials,
statesmen, politicians and the broad section of VIPs whom he will meet; a true footballing
ambassador.
