Kim Milton Nielsen (born 3 August 1960) is a Danish former international
football referee. An
IT manager by trade,
[ Jesper Victor Larsen]
Kim Milton Nielsen: Ham i sort!
, ''Krop & Sport'', vol. 2, 2006 Nielsen is noted for his impressive height of 1.96 m, making him taller than most players. Nielsen began refereeing at 15 years of age, as he wanted to know the
Laws of Football.
A decade later, he began taking charge of Danish top-flight games, and he was awarded his
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 ...
international badge in 1988 when he was still in his late 20s.
His career includes 154 internationals and 53
UEFA Champions League
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 ...
games.
In 1993, he earned his first major
UEFA
Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; french: Union des associations européennes de football; german: Union der europäischen Fußballverbände) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs f ...
call-up for the
UEFA Super Cup
The UEFA Super Cup is an annual super cup football match organised by UEFA and contested by the winners of the two main European club competitions; the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League. The competition's official name was originall ...
first leg between
SV Werder Bremen
Sportverein Werder Bremen von 1899 e. V. (), commonly known as Werder Bremen (), Werder or simply Bremen, is a German professional sports club based in Bremen, Bremen (state), Free Hanseatic City of Bremen. Founded on 4 February 1899, they are be ...
and
FC Barcelona
Futbol Club Barcelona (), commonly referred to as Barcelona and colloquially known as Barça (), is a professional football club based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, that competes in La Liga, the top flight of Spanish football.
Founded ...
. An appointment for a final followed the next year - the 1994
UEFA Cup
A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store Solid, solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, porcela ...
final first leg between
SV Austria Salzburg
SV Austria Salzburg is an Austrian professional football club, based in the city of Salzburg. The club was formed in 2005 by some supporters of the original SV (Austria) Salzburg after it was renamed FC Red Bull Salzburg by its new owners, who al ...
and
Inter Milan
Football Club Internazionale Milano, commonly referred to as Internazionale () or simply Inter, and colloquially known as Inter Milan in English-speaking countries, is an Football in Italy, Italian professional Association football, football ...
.
Nielsen refereed the
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...
-
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
match at
UEFA Euro 96
The 1996 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 96, was the 10th UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial football tournament contested by European nations and organised by UEFA. It took place in England from 8 to 30 ...
in England, and followed this up with duty at the
1998 FIFA World Cup
The 1998 FIFA World Cup was the 16th FIFA World Cup, the football world championship for men's national teams. The finals tournament was held in France from 10 June to 12 July 1998. The country was chosen as the host nation by FIFA for the ...
in France. He took charge of two matches, including the clash between
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
and
Argentina
Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...
in
Saint-Étienne
Saint-Étienne (; frp, Sant-Etiève; oc, Sant Estève, ) is a city and the prefecture of the Loire department in eastern-central France, in the Massif Central, southwest of Lyon in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region.
Saint-Étienne is the t ...
, where he is remembered for sending off England's
David Beckham
David Robert Joseph Beckham (; born 2 May 1975) is an English former professional footballer, the current president and co-owner of Inter Miami CF and co-owner of Salford City. Known for his range of passing, crossing ability and bending fr ...
for kicking out at Argentina's
Diego Simeone
Diego Pablo Simeone González (; ; born 28 April 1970, nicknamed El Cholo (), is an Argentine professional football manager and former player who played as a midfielder; he has been the manager of Atlético Madrid since December 2011.
In his cl ...
after the Argentinian had fouled him. England went on to lose the match on penalties, and Beckham was blamed and vilified by the English
tabloids for causing the loss as a result of his sending-off. He was noted as the newsmaker of June 1998 on the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
website where he gave his thoughts about the match and Beckham's sending off.
At
encounters, although the latter match ended in disappointment as he was forced out of the competition with a leg injury. He was replaced by
. The
. He was on duty in
complained about different gifts and accolades Nielsen allegedly received from Dutch officials.
In a
for sarcastically clapping in his face after he had initially been shown a yellow card. 'Even sarcastic play is not allowed, the referee cannot accept that,' Nielsen said of his decision to
.