James Finney (17 August 1924 – 1 April 2008"Cup Final referee passes away"
''ClaretsMad.co.uk'' website. Retrieved on 3 April 2008.) was an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

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 ...

during the 1960s and 1970s, active on the

FIFA FIFA (; stands for ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' ( French), meaning International Association Football Federation ) is the international governing body of association football, beach football and futsal. It was found ...

list. He was born in St Helens in Lancashire (now Merseyside) but was based during his refereeing career in Hereford. Outside football he worked as a brewery representative.

Refereeing career

Finney became a Football League linesman in 1957, stepping up to referee in 1959. He refereed the

Amateur Cup An amateur () is generally considered a person who pursues an avocation independent from their source of income. Amateurs and their pursuits are also described as popular, informal, self-taught, user-generated, DIY, and hobbyist. History Hi ...

final of that year. Finney then took charge of the

1962 FA Cup Final The 1962 FA Cup Final took place on 5 May 1962 at Wembley Stadium and was won by Tottenham Hotspur over Burnley, by a 3–1 scoreline. Due to the lack of passion and excitement, replaced by patience and cautious play, the final was dubbed "The Che ...

between

Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as Tottenham () or Spurs, is a professional association football, football club based in Tottenham, London, England. It competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English footba ...

and

Burnley Burnley () is a town and the administrative centre of the wider Borough of Burnley in Lancashire, England, with a 2001 population of 73,021. It is north of Manchester and east of Preston, at the confluence of the River Calder and River Bru ...

. Though the normal practice at the time was for the winning captain to keep the match ball,

Danny Blanchflower Robert Dennis Blanchflower (10 February 1926 – 9 December 1993) was a former Northern Ireland footballer, football manager and journalist who played for and captained Tottenham Hotspur, including during their double-winning season of 1960� ...

presented Finney with the ball at the end of the game. He is reported to be one of five

freemason Freemasonry or Masonry refers to fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local guilds of stonemasons that, from the end of the 13th century, regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their interaction with authorities ...

s to have refereed the

FA Cup Final The FA Cup Final, commonly referred to in England as just the Cup Final, is the last match in the FA Cup, Football Association Challenge Cup. It has regularly been one of the List of sports attendance figures, most attended domestic football ev ...

. Finney had been held in high regard within the domestic game for some time before this match. He was appointed as a linesman in the first European Nations Cup Final held in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

in 1960, assisting Arthur Ellis. In May 1963, Finney was also the referee during the

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

versus

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

match at

Hampden Park Hampden Park (Scottish Gaelic: ''Pàirc Hampden''), often referred to as Hampden, is a football stadium in the Mount Florida area of Glasgow, Scotland. The -capacity venue serves as the national stadium of football in Scotland. It is the no ...

, which he abandoned after 79 minutes. Finney later expressed concern that he thought "somebody would have been seriously hurt". Later he was selected as one of the English referees at the

1966 World Cup The 1966 FIFA World Cup was the eighth FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial football tournament for men's senior national teams. It was played in England from 11 July to 30 July 1966. The England national football team defeated West Germany 4-2 in the ...

, gaining some notoriety there for his handling of the

Uruguay Uruguay (; ), officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay ( es, República Oriental del Uruguay), is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast; while bordering ...

versus

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

quarter-final A single-elimination, knockout, or sudden death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of each match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final matc ...

in which he

sent off In sports, an ejection (also known as dismissal, sending-off, disqualification, or early shower) is the removal of a participant from a contest due to a violation of the sport's rules. The exact violations that lead to an ejection vary depending ...

Horacio Troche Florencio Horacio Troche Herrera (4 February 1935 – 14 July 2014) was a Uruguayan professional footballer who played as a defender. Career Born in Nueva Helvecia, Troche began playing football with local side Nacional de Nueva Helvecia as a ...

and Héctor Silva. That was the same day on which the

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

referee

Rudolf Kreitlein Rudolf Kreitlein (14 November 1919, in Fürth – 31 July 2012, in Stuttgart) was a German international football referee, active in the 1960s. England v Argentina, 1966 World Cup Kreitlein is perhaps best known for having refereed the 1966 ...

sent off

Argentinian Argentines (mistakenly translated Argentineans in the past; in Spanish (masculine) or ( feminine)) are people identified with the country of Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Argentines, ...

player

Antonio Rattin Antonio is a masculine given name of Etruscan origin deriving from the root name Antonius. It is a common name among Romance language-speaking populations as well as the Balkans and Lusophone Africa. It has been among the top 400 most popular male ...

Wembley Wembley () is a large suburbIn British English, "suburb" often refers to the secondary urban centres of a city. Wembley is not a suburb in the American sense, i.e. a single-family residential area outside of the city itself. in north-west Londo ...

, leading to a suggestion of partiality against the

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

an referees. Finney was a BBC studio pundit for the 1970 World Cup and he officiated at the 1971 League Cup final at Wembley, and had already been appointed to the

European Cup The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...

final at the same venue. However, he and his wife were seriously injured on 23 April 1971 in a car accident as they were travelling to a Preston-Aston Villa match at which he was due to officiate the following day. Although the pair recovered he was unfit to take charge of the European Cup Final, his place being taken by Jack Taylor. He expressed a hope that he would be able to have a few more matches before he reached the mandatory retirement age of 47 at the end of the 1971–1972 season. However a recurrence of an arm injury shortly afterwards meant that he was forced to retire without refereeing again. He can be seen officiating as a local celebrity in film of The Herefordshire Primary Schools cup final in 1963 in film held by the Cinema Museum in London.

Football administration

Finney later became an official at

Hereford United Hereford United Football Club was an association football club based in Hereford, England. They played at Edgar Street for their entire history. They were nicknamed 'The Whites' or 'The Lilywhites', after their predominantly white kit, or 'The ...

, and was secretary of

Cardiff City Cardiff City Football Club ( cy, Clwb Pêl-droed Dinas Caerdydd) is a professional association football club based in Cardiff, Wales. It competes in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1899 as R ...

.Profile
: Richard Whitehead's ''Where Are They Now?'' football history feature, from Bob Dunning's website; Retrieved on 2 April 2008

Death

Finney died in hospital in

Hereford Hereford () is a cathedral city, civil parish and the county town of Herefordshire, England. It lies on the River Wye, approximately east of the border with Wales, south-west of Worcester and north-west of Gloucester. With a population ...

on 1 April 2008.

References

Sources

* Taylor, Jack (1976) World Soccer Referee, Pelham, p93-94 (details of accident) {{DEFAULTSORT:Finney, Jim 1924 births 2008 deaths English football referees FA Cup final referees FIFA World Cup referees People from Hereford 1966 FIFA World Cup referees English Football League referees