Hugh Dallas

Hugh Dallas made his refereeing début in 1982 at age of 25, and just six years later he was running the line in a European Cup-Winners’ Cup match. His career was both successful and controversial, and ultimately ended in disgrace when he was sacked by the Scottish Football Association (SFA).

After nine seasons refereeing in the Scottish Premiership, Dallas retired a year early, at the end of the 2004-05 season. Between 1996-2002, he refereed in four Scottish FA Cup Finals, including the 2002 clash between Rangers and Celtic, when Rangers came from behind to win 3-2 in the last minute. In another match between the two Glasgow rivals in 1999, after sending off three players, Dallas was hit on the head by a coin thrown from the crowd and was seen leaving the pitch with blood pouring from the wound to receive treatment. Rangers won the match 3-0 and with it their ninth successive League title in succession. Dallas went home to find bricks thrown through a window of his house.

In addition to refereeing many crucial domestic matches, Dallas was in charge of many European club and international matches. He officiated at the 1998 and 2002 FIFA World Cup, and was in charge of the 1998 quarter-final between Italy and France, which the latter won 4-3 on penalties and went on to win the final. Four years later he was in charge of the quarter-final match between Germany and the USA.

The biggest European club games Dallas took charge of included the 1998 UEFA Cup semi-final between Spartak Moskva and Inter Milano, and the following year he refereed the final between Parma and Marseille in Moskva. The most important Champions’ League game he controlled was the 2001 semi-final first leg Real Madrid and Bayern München, which the Germans won 1-0 in front of 74,000 fervent Madrileños.

Dallas also refereed the 2002 European Super Cup between Real Madrid and Feyenoord in Monaco. This was to be his final season as in international referee. He was awarded the MBE in the 2003 New Years’ Honours List for his services to football and finally retired in 2005 to become an after-dinner speaker. He was appointed head of referee development in Scotland in 2009. Dallas was sacked the following year as the SFA supervisor of referees, however, when involved in a scandal involving an email he was supposed to have sent mocking the impending visit of the Pope to Scotland.