Hugh Dallas

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Hugh "Blue" Dallas MBE (born October 26, 1957 in Allanton, near Shotts) is a former Scottish football referee.

Dallas retired at the end of the 2004-05 Scottish football season. During his career he officiated at several major football events including Euro 2000, 2002 World Cup (in which he was the fourth official at the Final), the 1999 UEFA Cup final as well as several UEFA Champions League matches. He is best known in the United States for officiating the 2002 World Cup quarterfinal between the USA and Germany, in which he declined to award a penalty kick to the USA after a shot by Gregg Berhalter was blocked on the goal line by the outstretched arm of defender Torsten Frings.

In 1999, Dallas was infamously struck by a coin thrown from a Celtic fan in an Old Firm match against Rangers on 2 May. The incident was one of several significant flashpoints during and after the game, which subsequently led to future Old Firm league matches being given an afternoon kick-off time (the fixture in which the incident happened was given an early evening kick-off for reasons of live Sky Television coverage).

In December 2002, he was awarded an MBE for his services to Scottish football.

Since acting as a referee observer for the SPL after retiring from active duty, he was appointed to the UEFA Referees’ Committee, following the announcement of the composition of all of its Committees and Panels for the period up to 2009. Dallas has also been appointed to the new Referee Certification Panel, one of two Panels introduced in connection with UEFA’s Referee Convention. Dallas will continue his role as a UEFA referee observer as well. He is currently the SFA Referee Development Officer.

[edit] Trivia

As discovered by TV show Fantasy Football League, Dallas was once a contestant on Family Fortunes.
Scottish post-rockers Mogwai (who are Celtic fans) created a song entitled "Hugh Dallas" which appeared on a Matador Records compilation entitled Everything is Nice.