Last Friday it was announced by the Football League that former English referee Jack Taylor passed away at the age of 82. The man considered by many to be the greatest English official ever. He was the man who officiated in the 1974 World Cup Final where he did two things; firstly he became the first man to award a penalty in a World Cup final and secondly he showed he had bottle because the first penalty he award was in the second minute of the World Cup final against the home nation of West Germany. Unbelievable.
Taylor refereed in more than 1,000 games over a 30 year career which saw him officiate the 1966 FA Cup final between Everton and Sheffield Wednesday and the 1971 Champions League Final between Ajax and Panathinaikos (both at Wembley); by doing so cemented his place into footballing history and was subsequently inducted into the FIFA Hall of Fame in Barcelona in 1999, something which was and still is pretty much unheard of for an official.
Taylor travelled with the General Manager of Professional Game Match Officials Mike Riley to South Africa in 2010 to witness only the second Englishman to officiate in the World Cup final, Howard Webb. Webb, who was only 3 years of age when Taylor became the first Englishman to officiate the World Cup Final is now considered the best English referee around.
Say what you like about Howard Webb but his record speaks for itself. Not only has he refereed in the Champions League Final and World Cup Final in the same year but he has also refereed League Cup Finals, Community Shield, countless Internationals, he has also refereed abroad most notably in the MLS League Final between New England and Houston Dynamo. He has officiated in the Confederations Cup, the European Championships.
Webb has always been followed by incident. For example the 2007 League Cup final between Chelsea and Arsenal which erupted at full time into a mass brawl which saw history being made as it was the first time there were three red cards in a League Cup final… all awarded after the full-time whistle.
And who could forget this season in FA Cup match between Tottenham and Bolton at White Hart Lane which is remembered for one reason, the collapsing of Fabrice Muamba. Webb was praised because of his quick thinking and ability to calm the players down in a high pressure, skills he has taken from his time as part of the South Yorkshire Police. Webb said about that incident; “Without life, there is no football at all. The realisation is, when the CPR starts, is just how serious it is. This story has a happy ending thanks to the expertise of the medical staff.”
For me since Jack Taylor, Howard Webb has been and is the best referee England have to offer. He has all the right attributes and the right attitude towards his job which are two fundamental reasons why he has been asked time and time again to referee the big games, whether they are Cup Finals or domestic games between two of the Barclays Premier League teams.
However due to the change in how referee’s are bought through and trained I can easily predict that it will not be another 34 years until another Englishman referee’s the World Cup Final.
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