Govindasamy Suppiah (born 17 June 1929 – 6 December 2012) was a

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

referee A referee is an official, in a variety of sports and competition, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection. The official tasked with this job may be known by a variety of other titl ...

. Suppiah officiated at the

1974 FIFA World Cup The 1974 FIFA World Cup was the tenth FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial football tournament for men's senior national teams, and was played in West Germany (and West Berlin) between 13 June and 7 July. The tournament marked the first time that the ...

where he took charge of one match, Poland's 7–0 win against

Haiti Haiti (; ht, Ayiti ; French: ), officially the Republic of Haiti (); ) and formerly known as Hayti, is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and ...

and went on to officiate as a linesman for two further matches. He was the first

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an area ...

n to referee a match at the FIFA World Cup.

Personal life

Suppiah was born in

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

, and died, aged 83, in

. He had two grandchildren, daughter named Shamini Suppiah, son named Subra Suppiah and wife called Vallambal. Suppiah was a diabetic and had two toes removed from his foot after infection.

Awards

He was awarded by FIFA for being a referee instructor for 25 years. In 2009, he was presented with ''Distinguished Service Award'' and a ''Gold Service Award'' and in September, 2012 he was awarded the ''Lifetime Achievement Award''.

References

External links

*
Govindasamy Suppiah referee profile
at Playmaker Indian emigrants to Singapore Singaporean people of Tamil descent Singaporean sportspeople of Indian descent Singaporean football referees FIFA World Cup referees 1974 FIFA World Cup referees 1929 births 2012 deaths {{Singapore-footy-bio-stub