Concetto Lo Bello

Probably the best, and most well-known, of all Italian referees, Concetto Lo Bello started refereeing in 1944, and between 1954-74 refereed a record 328 Serie A games. His last game was Juventus-Fiorentina on 12 May 1974, 20 years and three days after his first. He won the Giovanni Mauro Award as Best Referee of the Year in 1963.

Having obtained his FIFA badge in 1958, Lo Bello refereed 93 matches on the international stage, 59 being club games and 34 between national teams. He had the honour of refereeing the final of the 1960 Roma Olympics between Yugoslavia and Denmark. He was in charge of the European Championship semi-final between the Soviet Union and Denmark in 1964, and at the FIFA World Cup two years late, refereed the England - Mexico game at Wembley, and also the semi-final between West Germany and the Soviet Union at Goodison Park, Liverpool.

Lo Bello was in the middle for many important international club games, including the second leg of the Intercontinental Cup match between Real Madrid and Peñarol in 1966. He refereed two European Cup finals, the first being Manchester United - Benfica at Wembley in 1968, and the second, the 1970 final between Feyenoord and Glasgow Celtic, at the San Siro in Milan. Lo Bello also took charge of the 1967 European Cup Winners’ Cup final between Bayern München and Glasgow Celtic, and the second leg of the 1966 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup between Barcelona and Real Zaragoza. When he took charge of the second leg of the 1974 UEFA Cup final between Feyenoord and Tottenham Hotspur, it was 16 days after his 50th birthday, which made him the oldest official in a European final. One of the linesmen in that game was Lo Bello’s son Rosario. Concetto retired after that match and, from 1976 until his death, was president of the Italian Handball Federation, during which time many Italian teams (men and women) enjoyed considerable success across Europe.

Lo Bello also entered the world of politics, and was a member of the Christian Democrat Party from 1972-87, and for five months, in 1986, was mayor of his hometown, Siracusa. He was posthumously inducted into the Italian Football Hall of Fame in 2012.

Lo Bello is immortalized in two books about his life and career. One is Concetto Lo Bello, da Siracusa. L’uomo, l’arbitro attraverso i media by Giuseppe Basile, and the other called Concetto Lo Bello. Un uomo di rigore, co-written by Enzo Pennone, Gaetano Sconzo and Umberto Teghini, and with the help of Lo Bello’s son Rosario.