George Reader

George Reader (November 22, 1896 – July 13, 1978) was the fourth man to referee a FIFA World Cup final, the first Englishman (one of only 10 match officials from the United Kingdom), and the oldest match official at any World Cup.

Early Career

George Reader was born in Nuneaton, Warwickshire. By profession he was a school master going to St Luke’s teacher training college (the same one that Ken Aston was to attend) just after the First World War in Exeter. (St. Luke's is now part of Exeter University).

Finding work in Exeter as a young teacher, Reader first played as an amateur in the Southern Football League in the 1919-20 season for Exeter City. It was with that club that he played in a friendly against Southampton on January 2, 1920 a week before the third round of the FA Cup. Reader scored and impressed the visiting side so much that they signed him as a handy replacement centre-forward to Bill Rawlings who was a main stay of the Saints side in the 1920s. Unfortunately, given Rawling's abilities (he scored on average a goal every two games) Reader was unable to break into the side and played only 3 times in the old Third Division (South) being off-loaded, obscurely, to Harland and Wolff for a year before playing out his days on the Isle of Wight at Cowes FC commuting on the ferry from his job as an Assistant schoolmaster in Southampton.

Refereeing

He took up refereeing in 1930, first appearing on Southampton Common and progressed through the promotional system with an alacrity that underlined his ability and experience. Within 6 seasons he was lining in the Football League and 3 years later was invited to referee matches on the Football League in season 1939-40 but, unfortunately, the 1939-40 season was abandoned after 3 games and therefore, Reader, though a figure with whom much was expected, officially only refereed 3 Football League matches in his career.*

However, during hostilities Reader featured prominently in War-time football and was appointed referee in two War Cup finals and Home Internationals and then, toward the end of hostilities, Reader was appointed to take charge of Victory internationals between England and allied national teams. He was retired off the Football League list in November 1944 but was still in such demand amongst foreign Football Associations that he was selected to through-out Europe; in Barcelona for a Spain v Argentina game in 1947, and also taking charge of matches in 1949 in Stockholm (between Sweden and Hungary) and in Geneva and Lisbon. In 1948 the Football League took the unusual step of recalling Reader out of retirement to referee the Chelsea v Brentford fixture at Griffin Park and he was warmly received. His swansong, at the age of 50, appeared to be the Rest of Europe versus Great Britain game at Hampden Park in a match held to celebrate the blessed Peace but in 1949 England qualified for the FIFA World Cup finals in Brazil.

1950 FIFA World Cup

As an adjunct to their participation FIFA requested that a team of British match officials journey to Brazil with the English team. Despite reservations about his advanced age, Reader’s international experience had placed him amongst those the Football Association could call on and he was selected alongside Mervyn (Sandy) Griffiths (of Wales), George Mitchell (of Scotland) and the two English referees Reg Leafe and Arthur Edward Ellis, who, later, was to act as a referee amidst the big outfits and sloshing water on TV’s It’s a Knockout.

Given charge of the opening match Reader’s powers of control were put to the test just after Brazil scored their first goal against Mexico. As was the custom, the goal heralded a mass invasion by reporters demanding immediate responses from goalscorer and goalkeeper. Ellis, watching on, later wrote, in his book The Final Whistle:

“How could any one man restore law and order? Somehow, George Reader did just that within a few minutes. He cleared the pitch almost single-handed and re-started the World Cup curtain-raiser as if it were an end-of-the-season fixture in the Yorkshire League”. In their next match against the Swiss the Brazilians voiced their criticisms of the Spanish referee, Ramon Azon Roma, stating that he had cost them victory (Jacques Fatton equalising right at the last) and, as a result, the editor of a daily newspaper in Rio El Noche sang the praises of the British referees, telling his readers that even if they were to face England, Brazil would demand a British referee. With England's early exit this, unlikely, event was averted. However, all four matches that Brazil played, thereafter, were refereed by one of the British contingent.

So as Brazil won their way through to the final match (and as public expectation grew so much that it threatened to engulf even the massive Maracana) each Brazilian game came to be refereed by one of the British team, including the ‘Final’ in which Mitchell and Ellis ran the line to George Reader.

The Final

Reader had refereed two matches prior to the final group: the opening game (in which Brazil beat Mexico) and Uruguay's thrashing of the Bolivians in 'Group 4' but it was to be in his appointment to the final Brazilian game that he would secure his place in history. Although there was no provision for a final, the last game of the tournament (albeit played at the same time as the Sweden v Spain fixture) was the determining fixture. And Reader was appointed to referee, with Ellis and Mitchell running the lines. On the day of the final Reader was 53 years and 236 days old, comfortably the oldest referee ever to officiate in a FIFA World Cup final.

Approximate recordings for the attendance that day differ wildly. FIFA consider that there were 174,000 people there; although other estimates indicate that there may have been between 199,854 and as many as 250,000 (which, would have been more people than lived in Reader's Southampton at the time). In any event it is the highest recorded attendance at a football match in history.

His role in the final is famous for the incident in the 47th minute of the game when Obdulio Varela took the ball out of the Uruguayan net after Friaca's goal put Brazil 1-0 up. Varela strode up to Reader and started arguing incomprehensibly in Spanish to the monolingual referee. By the time Reader had waved play to begin again the crowd had settled and Varela had issued the rousing cry "Now, it's time to win!". It’s said that Varela’s actions were enough to still the crowd and steal the initiative from the Brazilian team. Reader's performance was excellent; indeed it is hard to find any complaint or criticism of his performance on a day when Brazil lost in such a shocking, emotional manner that suicides were reported at the stadium, and Jules Rimet, would comment about the lack of noise from the massed banks of the Maracana, "The silence was morbid, sometimes too difficult to bear".

Retirement

Uruguay went onto win and Reader returned home to Hanley Road in Southampton and promptly retired, stating that he had ‘had everything that soccer can give me’. George Reader thereafter became a Director and then Chairman of Southampton, in 1963, and sat beside her Majesty when Lawrie McMenemy’s side won the 1976 FA Cup Final, passing away on the anniversary of the very first World Cup matches two years later.

On January 19, 2001 Southampton set about naming parts of St Mary's Stadium in honour of past serving club officials. Reader's name was short-listed as one for the Box Holders' Bar.

References

• Duncan Holley & Gary Chalk (1992). The Alphabet of the Saints. ACL & Polar Publishing. ISBN 0-9514862-3-3.