William Ling (referee)

English association football referee

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William Ling (1 August 1908 – 8 May 1984) was an English football referee from Stapleford, Cambridgeshire, who refereed the 1954 FIFA World Cup Final.

## 1948 Olympic Games[edit]

Ling rose quickly through the ranks as a referee. He was initially on the supplementary list as a Football League match official but even so was selected to participate in the 1948 Olympic Games football tournament along with George Reader, Stanley Boardman and A. C. Williams from Brighton. Ling refereed both the first round match involving Sweden, the quarter-final involving Italy and was then selected for the final between Sweden and Yugoslavia. The final itself turned on two penalty decisions early in the second half (both which were denied to the Yugoslavians) and which affected their temperament. Bernard Joy, in the 1960 publication "Association Football" (p. 470), wrote: "The setbacks rattled the Yugoslavs, their behaviour got out of hand for a spell and they did not recover their rhythm. What made matters worse was when Gunnar Gren converted a penalty midway through the second half. It is true that Gunnar Nordahl was bowled over, but the offence looked no worse than those committed by the Swedish centre half Bertil Nordahl."

## 1951 FA Cup Final[edit]

By the start of the next season (1948–49) Ling had become a Football League referee, and within 3 years had been appointed to control an FA Cup Final.

Ling refereed the FA Cup Final in 1951, in which Newcastle United beat Blackpool with two Jackie Milburn goals.

## 1954 World Cup[edit]

The 1954 World Cup was only his second international tournament not having been selected for the 1950 FIFA World Cup. He was one of a group of four referees appointed from the United Kingdom for the 1954 tournament. The others were Benjamin Mervyn Griffiths from Wales, Arthur Ellis from Yorkshire and Charles Edward Faultless (Scotland). In the course of the tournament, Ling had already refereed the Group match between Hungary and West Germany (in which the Hungarians had won 8–3 against the West German team of mainly reserve players) and had assisted Arthur Ellis during the Battle of Berne quarter-final. In the final he was assisted by Griffiths and the Italian Vincenzo Orlandini.[1]

### The Final[edit]

Ling's part in the final, between Hungary and West Germany, became slightly controversial because he accepted Griffith's offside flag in the final minutes to deny Ferenc Puskás a 3-3 equalizer that could have sent the game into extra-time.

West German radio reporter Herbert Zimmermann had called Puskás offside well before he kicked.

Willy Meisl observed, later, that it appeared that goal keeper Gyula Grosics had struck Ling following the final whistle. Nothing came of this incident and the mood amongst the Hungarians had settled when the trophy was handed to the West Germans.

## The Miracle of Bern[edit]

The final match itself became the subject of a German film Miracle of Bern in which the story of the match is told. Joachim Floryszak, a non-League German football referee and civil servant, starred as Ling after contacting the director Sönke Wortmann begging to be given a place in the film.

## References[edit]

### Print[edit]

* "Association Football", Bernard Joy, 1960.

### Internet[edit]

1. ^ 1954 World Cup Statistics: TotalFootball.org website.

Preceded by

George Reader

|  FIFA World Cup final match referees
1954
William Ling | Succeeded by

Maurice Guigue

|
|

Preceded by

H. Pearce

|  FA Cup Final Referee
1951 | Succeeded by

Arthur Ellis

* v
* t
* e

FIFA World Cup final referees

Referees|

* 1930:  John Langenus
* 1934:  Ivan Eklind
* 1938:  Georges Capdeville
* 1954:  William Ling
* 1958:  Maurice Guigue
* 1962:  Nikolay Latyshev
* 1966:  Gottfried Dienst
* 1970:  Rudi Glöckner
* 1974:  Jack Taylor
* 1978:  Sergio Gonella
* 1982:  Arnaldo Cézar Coelho
* 1986:  Romualdo Arppi Filho
* 1990: / Edgardo Codesal Méndez
* 1994:  Sándor Puhl
* 1998:  Said Belqola
* 2002:  Pierluigi Collina
* 2006:  Horacio Elizondo
* 2010:  Howard Webb
* 2014:  Nicola Rizzoli
* 2018:  Néstor Pitana
* 2022:  Szymon Marciniak

Assistant referees|

* 1930:  Ulises Saucedo & Henri Christophe
* 1934:  Louis Baert & Mihály Iváncsics
* 1938:  Hans Wüthrich & Augustin Krist
* 1954:  Vincenzo Orlandini & Sandy Griffiths
* 1958:  Albert Dusch & Juan Gardeazábal Garay
* 1962:  Leo Horn & Bobby Davidson
* 1966:  Tofiq Bahramov & Karol Galba
* 1970:  Rudolf Scheurer & Ángel Norberto Coerezza
* 1974:  Ramón Barreto Ruiz & Alfonso González Archundia
* 1978:  Ramón Barreto Ruiz & Erich Linemayr
* 1982:  Abraham Klein & Vojtech Christov
* 1986:  Erik Fredriksson & Berny Ulloa Morera
* 1990:  Armando Pérez Hoyos & Michał Listkiewicz
* 1994:  Venancio Zarate Vázquez & Mohammad Fanaei
* 1998:  Mark Warren & Achmat Salie
* 2002:  Leif Lindberg & Philip Sharp
* 2006:  Dario García & Rodolfo Otero
* 2010:  Darren Cann & Mike Mullarkey
* 2014:  Renato Faverani & Andrea Stefani
* 2018:  Hernán Maidana & Juan Pablo Belatti
* 2022:  Paweł Sokolnicki & Tomasz Listkiewicz

Fourth officials|

* 1994:  Francisco Oscar Lamolina
* 1998:  Abdul Rahman Al-Zaid
* 2002:  Hugh Dallas
* 2006:  Luis Medina Cantalejo
* 2010:  Yuichi Nishimura
* 2014:  Carlos Vera Rodríguez
* 2018:  Björn Kuipers
* 2022:  Ismail Elfath

Fifth officials|

* 2006:  Victoriano Giráldez Carrasco
* 2010:  Toru Sagara
* 2014:  Christian Lescano Guerrero
* 2018:  Erwin Zeinstra
* 2022:  Kathryn Nesbitt

Video assistant referees|

* 2018:  Massimiliano Irrati
* 2022:  Tomasz Kwiatkowski

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