Brett Allen (born 14 April 1966) is a retired

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...

Field umpire in the

Australian Football League The Australian Football League (AFL) is the only fully professional competition of Australian rules football. Through the AFL Commission, the AFL also serves as the sport's governing body and is responsible for controlling the laws of the gam ...

. He umpired 346 career games in the AFL since his debut in 1992. A veteran of the AFL umpiring list, Allen was involved in the " Whispers in the Sky" controversy. Although not accused of doing anything improper, he was the second umpire, along with

Matthew Head Matthew Head (born 2 November 1975 in Victoria, Australia) is a former Australian rules football field umpire (Australian rules football) in the Australian Football League The Australian Football League (AFL) is the only fully professional ...

, on the flight. He defended Head, saying ''"Head had made no such comment"''. Two police officers were appointed to investigate the alleged comments by the umpires, however found nothing regarding the accused bribery. He is fifth on the AFL Umpiring all-time records for the number of finals games officiated, with 33, which is one behind fellow 2007-listed umpire

Darren Goldspink Darren Goldspink (born 12 September 1964) is a veteran Australian rules football umpire in the Australian Football League. Goldspink was awarded the prestigious All Australian Umpire award three times over his career in 1993, 1995 and 2005, ea ...

. He has also won the All Australian Umpire of the year four times over his AFL career: in

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shootin ...

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

and

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...

. He announced his retirement on 5 September 2007, citing the increase in interstate travel and training required to umpire at the highest level. He was inducted into the

Australian Football Hall of Fame The Australian Football Hall of Fame was established in 1996, the Centenary year of the Australian Football League, to help recognise the contributions made to the sport of Australian rules football by players, umpires, media personalities, coa ...

in 2017. On 24 October 2000, Allen was awarded the Australian Sports Medal for his contribution to the game.

Footnotes

1966 births Australian Football League umpires Living people Recipients of the Australian Sports Medal Australian Football Hall of Fame inductees {{AFL-bio-1960s-stub