Kenneth Howard Burns (1931–2016) 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 ...

who officiated in the English

Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in the world. It was the top-level football league in Engla ...

, and 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. During his refereeing career he was based in

Stourbridge Stourbridge is a market town in the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley in the West Midlands, England, situated on the River Stour. Historically in Worcestershire, it was the centre of British glass making during the Industrial Revolution. The 20 ...

, in the borough of Dudley,

West Midlands West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some ...

, and was by profession a

legal executive Legal executives are a form of trained legal professional in certain jurisdictions. They often specialise in a particular area of law. The training that a Legal Executive undertakes usually includes both vocational training (a minimum of 3 years ...

. He most notably refereed

Sunderland AFC Sunderland Association Football Club (, ) is an English professional football club based in the city of Sunderland, Tyne and Wear. Formed in 1879, Sunderland play in the Championship, the second tier of English football. The club has won six t ...

's famous 1–0 victory against

Leeds United Leeds United Football Club is a professional football club based in Leeds, West Yorkshire in England. The club competes in the Premier League, the highest level of England's football league system, and plays its home matches at Elland Road S ...

in the

1973 FA Cup Final The 1973 FA Cup Final was the 92nd final of the FA Cup. It took place on 5 May 1973 at Wembley Stadium and was contested between Leeds United, the previous season's winners and one of the dominant teams in English football at the time, and Sunde ...

which is still regarded as one of the biggest upsets in

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...

history.

Career

He made the Football League referees list at the age of thirty in 1961. On 29 April 1967, he refereed the

semi-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 ...

between

and

Chelsea Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to: Places Australia * Chelsea, Victoria Canada * Chelsea, Nova Scotia * Chelsea, Quebec United Kingdom * Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames ** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...

Villa Park Villa Park is a football stadium in Aston, Birmingham, England, with a seating capacity of 42,682. It has been the home of Premier League side Aston Villa since 1897. The ground is less than a mile from both Witton and Aston railway stations ...

, which the

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

side won 1–0, after Burns had disallowed two legitimate late Leeds goals. Revenge was to come six months later, in an old First Division fixture at

Elland Road Elland Road is a football stadium in Beeston, Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, which has been the home of Premier League club Leeds United since the club's formation in 1919. The stadium is the 14th largest football stadium in England. The g ...

between the two sides, on 7 October 1967. Burns also refereed this, and the

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a Historic counties of England, historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other Eng ...

team won 7–0. In 1969, he was senior linesman for the FA Cup Final, assisting

George McCabe George McCabe (born 13 March 1922, Sheffield, Yorkshire; died January 2001

. This was McCabe's last match before retirement and in the summer Burns took his place on the FIFA List. His greatest domestic honour came in 1973 when he 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 ...

between Leeds and

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port city in Tyne and Wear, England. It is the City of Sunderland's administrative centre and in the Historic counties of England, historic county of County of Durham, Durham. The city is from Newcastle-upon-Tyne and is on t ...

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 ...

. This is a well-remembered Final, not least for a crucial double-save by North East goalkeeper

Jimmy Montgomery Jimmy Montgomery BEM (born 9 October 1943) is an English retired footballer who played as a goalkeeper. He made a record 627 appearances for his hometown club Sunderland with 537 of these appearances being in the league, after joining the cl ...

, as Sunderland, of the old

Second Division In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...

, defeated Leeds, one of the top clubs in the country at that time, by 1 goal to nil. He was serving as president of the Referees' Association when he took this appointment. Burns was a regular official in

European European, or Europeans, or Europeneans, may refer to: In general * ''European'', an adjective referring to something of, from, or related to Europe ** Ethnic groups in Europe ** Demographics of Europe ** European cuisine, the cuisines of Europe ...

competitions, at both international and club level. He controlled the European Championships qualifier between

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

and

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

on 21 November 1971, for a place in the 1972 competition finals. He also took charge of a

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 ...

quarter-final between

Bayern Munich Fußball-Club Bayern München e. V. (FCB, ), also known as FC Bayern (), Bayern Munich, or simply Bayern, is a German professional sports club based in Munich, Bavaria. It is best known for its professional men's football team, which pla ...

and

Ajax Ajax may refer to: Greek mythology and tragedy * Ajax the Great, a Greek mythological hero, son of King Telamon and Periboea * Ajax the Lesser, a Greek mythological hero, son of Oileus, the king of Locris * ''Ajax'' (play), by the ancient Greek ...

in 1973,European Cup quarter-final
, 1973: Bob Dunning's ''Rothman's Football Yearbook'' online archive (point 3) and of

Club Brugge (), known simply as Club Brugge (in English also: ''Club Bruges''), is a Belgian professional football club based in Bruges, Belgium. It was founded in 1891 and its home ground is the Jan Breydel Stadium, which has a capacity of 29,062.

's famous win over

Real Madrid Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (, meaning ''Royal Madrid Football Club''), commonly referred to as Real Madrid, is a Spanish professional football club based in Madrid. Founded in 1902 as Madrid Football Club, the club has traditionally wor ...

in the same competition in the autumn of 1976. He would probably have received more appointments of this stature, but for his busy fellow West Midlander,

Wolverhampton Wolverhampton () is a city, metropolitan borough and administrative centre in the West Midlands, England. The population size has increased by 5.7%, from around 249,500 in 2011 to 263,700 in 2021. People from the city are called "Wulfrunian ...

's Jack Taylor, who was England's senior representative at that time. Burns retired in 1978 after seventeen years of Football League refereeing and nine at international level. By coincidence, his career had overlapped with another long-serving Football League,

and international referee from Stourbridge –

Eric Jennings Eric Thomas Jennings (22 January 1923 – June 1988) was an English football referee, who operated in the Football League and for FIFA. In his refereeing years he was based in Stourbridge in the West Midlands. Outside football he was employed a ...

References

Print

*Football League Handbooks, 1961–1970 *Rothmans Football Yearbooks, 1971–1978 *Ionescu, Romeo (2003) The Complete Results & Line-Ups of the European Fairs Cup 1955–1971, Soccer Books Limited *Ionescu, Romeo (2004) The Complete Results & Line-Ups of the European Champion Clubs' Cup 1955–1991, Soccer Books Limited *Ionescu, Romeo (2004) The Complete Results & Line-Ups of the European Cup Winners Cup 1960–1999, Soccer Books Limited *Ionescu, Romeo (2004) The Complete Results & Line-Ups of the UEFA Cup 1971–1991, Soccer Books Limited

Internet

{{DEFAULTSORT:Burns, Ken 1931 births 2016 deaths People from Stourbridge English football referees FA Cup Final referees English Football League referees