Sergio Gonella

Sergio Gonella (born May 23, 1933 in Asti ; † June 19, 2018 ) was an Italian football referee . He directed the final of the Football World Cup in 1978 .

Career

Gonella directed games in Serie A back in the 1960s ; In 1974 he whistled the Italian cup final between FC Bologna and US Palermo . When he ended his career in 1978, he had 175 appearances in Serie A in his statistics.

Gonella's international career began in 1972. That year he whistled the final of the U-23 European Championship , which Czechoslovakia won. In 1975 he directed the Supercup game between Dynamo Kiev and Bayern Munich . At the European Football Championship in 1976 Gonella was the referee of the final in Belgrade between the DFB team and Czechoslovakia , which the ČSSR won on penalties .

Two years later he was in action at the World Cup in Argentina . In the preliminary round, he led the 0-0 between Brazil and Spain . One of his linesmen in this encounter was Abraham Klein , who led Italy's 1-0 win against the hosts in the preliminary round and correctly refused the hosts a claimed penalty. Due to his good performance in the second round, Klein should then whistle the final between Argentina and the Netherlands . Argentina was ruled by right-wing military at the time , and the Association of Hosts raised concerns about Klein's Jewish heritage. As a 13-year-old, Klein lived in the Dutch city of Apeldoorn for a year .

FIFA referee Artemio Franchi nominated his Italian compatriot Gonella for the final, while Klein was in charge of the match for third place. Gonella was not used as a referee in the second round (in 1978, as in the 1974 World Cup, there were no quarter or semi-finals, but a second final round with two groups of four teams - the two group winners then played the final).

From 1998 to 2000 Gonella was President of the Italian Referees Association Associazione Italiana Arbitri .

Web links

• Sergio Gonella in the database of weltfussball.de

Individual evidence

1. ↑ É morto Sergio Gonella: arbitrò la finale di Coppa Italia tra Palermo e Bologna. In: stadionews.it. June 19, 2018, accessed June 19, 2018 (Italian). 
2. ↑ ^{a b c} Oliver Noelle: The little lexicon of football records. Knaur Taschenbuch, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-426-77828-9 , p. 104
3. ^ Simon Kuper: Israel's Favorite Team: A rainy day in Tel Aviv. Ajax USA, archived from the original on October 25, 2006 ; accessed on June 19, 2018 (English).