George Reader

George Reader(November 22, 1896 - July 13, 1978) was the fourth man to referee a 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-- Reader was born in Exeter and went to the same teacher training college St Luke's College to which Ken Aston would later study. Finding work in Exeter as a young teacher, Reader first played 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 for Southampton before departing at the end of the 1920-21 season.

--Refereeing-- Concentrating more on his teaching career, Reader played for Cowes FC on the Isle of Wight before hanging up his boots in the early 1930s and returning to Hampshire to continue with his teaching. It was there that Reader took up refereeing, first appearing on Southampton Common and progressed through the promotional system with an alacrity that underlined his ability and experience. Within 3 seasons he was refereeing in the Football League, 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 1944 but was still in demand amongst foreign Football Associations, being the referee 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 Paris. 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.

--1950 FIFA World Cup-- England's first appearance at the 1950 FIFA World Cup in Brazil as a further cause for Reader's career to be extended. He went to Rio with a group of British referees who had been selected by the Scottish Football Association, the Football Association of Wales and Football Association. The referees who were selected were Arthur Edward Ellis, Reg Leafe, from Wales Mervyn 'Sandy' Griffiths and, from Scotland, George Mitchell.

Their performances were remarkably successful, more so since Spanish referee Ramon Azon Roma had disappointed the hosts in their Group 1 match against Switzerland in which they drew 2-2 after conceding a late equalising goal from Jacques Fatton. This drew a response from El Noche, the Rio nightly newspaper, extolling the virtues of British referees and stating that the Brazilians would have faith in a British referee even if the national side were to face England later in the tournament. 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.

--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 as many as 250,000 (which, would have been more people than lived in Reader's Southampton at the time).

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!". 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-- Reader having returned to his home in Hampshire promptly retired, citing the fact that he could do no more as a referee and continued as a headmaster within the school's system in Hampshire. He was appointed onto the Southampton board of directors in 1952 and became President of the club, seeing the famous 1976 FA Cup Final triumph (when Southampton beat Manchester United 1-0) whilst sitting next to Queen Elizabeth. He died on the anniversary of the first World Cup matches played in Uruguay.

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.