Kevin Howley (born c. 1926) was an English football referee from Billingham, Stockton-on-Tees, County Durham, who officiated in the 1950s and 1960s.
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Howley was 34 years of age when he took charge of the 1960 FA Cup Final between Wolverhampton Wanderers and Blackburn Rovers. A newspaper of the time christened this the "The Dustbin Final", because Blackburn supporters, enraged by incidents during the game, threw rubbish at the Wolves players and their manager, Stan Cullis, as they were leaving the arena. Howley came in for certain criticism for allowing a dubious Wolves goal to stand. Dave Whelan also suffered a broken leg during the first half.[1] Whelan later went on to set up the JJB Sports retailing company and became the owner of Wigan Athletic Football Club.
Howley represented England in the 1964 European Nations' Cup Preliminary round, when Spain defeated Romania by 6-0 on November 1, 1962, and also two matches in the qualifying rounds of the renamed competition in 1968, the European Championship. He was selected for the 1966 World Cup, acting as a linesman throughout the tournament, notably for referee Ken Dagnall in the third place play-off match between Portugal and the Soviet Union at Wembley.
The final League match of Howley's career was the match between Tottenham and Arsenal at White Hart Lane on May 3, 1971; Arsenal won the game 1-0 and with it the First Division title, which formed the first part of the Double they achieved that season.†