Now that football matches are watched on television and Internet, everyone is free to judge the work of football referees and linesmen. Their weighted decisions and clear howlers can’t escape from close looks of millions of people around the world. However, it has not always been like that. At the dawn of the sport referees had quite a creative job to do as no one could check their work while the rules were not exactly formed at the time. So who were the iconic referees who were given an honor of working in the World Cup finals, the most important matches in the sport?

Well, the Belgian John Langenus was an influential person on Uruguayan football pitches at the very first World Cup in 1930. He worked in six matches, including four as a referee and two as a linesman. He was honored to officiate the final match between Uruguay and Argentina and suggested to use two different balls in each half (one provided by the hosts and the other one by their opponents) as there was no ball standard at the time. Besides, he had to deal with death threats that the Argentine players had to face at half-time, so it is hard to imagine the magnitude of decisions Langenus had to take. Curiously, one of his assistants was the Bolivian Ulises Caicedo who managed his national team at the same tournament. Wouldn’t it be fun if Gareth Southgate part-time job in Russia was running along the sideline with a flag, calling offsides? Anyway, the Belgian then went on to officiate in two more World Cups and got to history books.

The Frenchman Georges Capdeville became the only referee in history to serve the World Cup at home in 1938.

The first World Cup final after the war was served by 53-year old George Reader, who became the oldest referee ever to serve the final. That game at the legendary Maracana stadium in Rio de Janeiro between Uruguay and Brazil also proved to be the highest-attended match in the history of football with around 200,000 people in the stands.

 

Jack Taylor officiated in the World Cup final in 1974 and called two penalties in the opening 30 minutes, one for West Germany and one for the Netherlands.

The Mexican referee Edgardo Codesal officiated in the final match of the 1990 World Cup and got famous for sending off two Argentine players.

The Italian Pierluigi Collina is arguably the most notorious and respected referee of all times, both for his outstanding professionalism and recognizable appearance and work style. He officiated in most of the major football finals, including the UEFA Cup final, the UEFA Champions League final and, obviously, the World Cup final in 2002.

The Argentine Horacio Elizondo, who officiated in the final between Italy and France in 2006, is best remembered for sending Zinedine Zidane off following his headbutt on Marco Materazzi in extra time.

Howard Webb from England had a very tough final to officiate in 2010 as it was an extremely feisty game. The Dutch players demonstrated rough performance and were lucky to escape a couple of red cards before extra time. Yet Webb had to issue 14 yellow cards and send one player off, which made the match by far the dirtiest final in the history of World Cups.

Overall, English referees have had the biggest presence refereeing the World Cup finals with 4 officiated matches. They are closely followed by Italian referees (3). The standards of refereeing have changed drastically since the first World Cup in Uruguay and we never know how football matches will be officiated in the close future with systems like VAR or Hawk-Eye being introduced to assist the referees and make their decisions more accurate. Let’s see if the Argentine Nestor Pitana manages to control the final well and if he gets to the list of the best referees in history of football.