Reg Leafe

A former footballer, Reg Leafe played as a right-winger, but his career was cut short due to injury. In 1937, he became a registered referee, and carried this out alongside his occupation of accounting machine operator. He was added to the FIFA international list of referees in 1948, and between then and 1960, took control of 37 international matches, with his début being the friendly between Norway and the Netherlands at Oslo on 16 May 1948. He ran the line at three Olympic matches that year, including the Denmark – Sweden semi-final. At the 1950 FIFA World Cup, Leafe refereed two matches, including Brazil’s 6-1 win over Spain in the final set of group games.

Leafe had the honour of refereeing the famous match between Wolverhampton Wanderers and the touring Honved team in 1954, and the following year took charge of the FA Cup final between Newcastle United and Manchester City. Leafe appeared in his second World Cup at Sweden in 1958, refereeing the West Germany versus Argentina, and Sweden versus USSR games.

During the 1960-61 European Cup, Leafe was involved in two controversial matches. The first was the second round, second leg match, between Barcelona and “El Clásico” rivals Real Madrid. The match was all-square at 2-2 after the first leg, and Barcelona won the second 2-1 to eliminate Madrid from the competition for the first time since its inauguration in 1955. However, Leafe is reported to have disallowed four Madrid goals (although some reports say it was three, while the English press reported only two), and he was cheered off the pitch by the Catalan fans, but berated by Real Madrid president Santiago Bernabéu, who said: “Leafe was Barcelona’s best player!”

Later in the competiton, controversy followed Leafe again. In the semi-final between Benfica and Rapid Vienna in Austria, the Portuguese were leading 4-1 with a couple of minutes to go in the second leg when the Rapid forward Robert Dienst was seemingly brought down in the penalty area. Leafe said he dived and was not fouled. The Vienna players protested, the crowd protested, and they spilled over onto he pitch causing ugly scenes. Leafe abandoned the match. The result stood, and Benfica went on to their first final. Leafe bowed out of international refereeing after taking charge of the 1960 Olympic bronze medal match between Hungary and Italy.