Rudolf Kreitlein

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Rudolf Kreitlein (b. November 14, 1919 - d.) was a German, international referee and tailor in the 1950s and 1960s.

[edit] England v Argentina, 1966 World Cup

Kreitlein is, perhaps, most well-known for his refereeing of the 1966 World Cup quarter-final match between England and Argentina in which he sent Antonio Rattin from the field of play in the 35th minute of the game for dissent[1].Rattin initially refused to leave the pitch,arguing furiously with Kreitlein (even though neither man understood each other's native language),and the game was held up for several minutes until Rattin reluctantly departed. It was also during that game that Jack Charlton was cautioned, only to discover the fact the next day from the newspaper report. As a result of this incident Ken Aston developed the idea of yellow cards and red cards to aid on-field communication in football. Kreitlein, who had never seen the match, requested a copy of the game from the Football Association in 2006. [2]. Kreitlein retired from international competition following the game.

[edit] Career

Kreitlein rise to prominence within the European game was evident prior to the World Cup. He had been appointed as one of the German representatives for the 1963 UEFA Youth Championship in England, refereeing the final between England and Northern Ireland at Wembley (his assistants were the Hungarian orchestral conductor and referee Istvan Zsolt and the Belgian Mark Raemaekers).

Kreitlein had been a Bundesliga referee from 1963 (the first season of that national league) but had only refereed 36 matches at national level before being appointed referee (in May, 1966) to the European Cup Final when he took charge of the game between Real Madrid and Partizan Belgrade in Brussels. [3]