Kurt Waldemar Tschenscher (5 October 1928 – 13 August 2014)
/ref> was a German

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 ...

. Born in Schimischow,

Weimar Germany The Weimar Republic (german: link=no, Weimarer Republik ), officially named the German Reich, was the government of Germany from 1918 to 1933, during which it was a Constitutional republic, constitutional federal republic for the first time in ...

(today Szymiszów, Poland), Tschenscher took up refereeing in 1948 and by 1953 he was part of the

German Football Association The German Football Association (german: Deutscher Fußball-Bund ; DFB ) is the governing body of football in Germany. A founding member of both FIFA and UEFA, the DFB has jurisdiction for the German football league system and is in charge of t ...

's group of top referees. Within another five years, he was promoted to the FIFA list of international referees. In October 1959, he refereed the second leg of

Yugoslavia Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label=Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavija ...

1960 European Nations' Cup The 1960 European Nations' Cup was the first edition of the UEFA European Championship, held every four years and organised by UEFA. The first tournament was held in France. It was won by the Soviet Union, who beat Yugoslavia 2–1 in Paris afte ...

first round win over

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. In September 1962, he took charge of the replay of the 1962 European Cup Winners' Cup Final, in which

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beat

Fiorentina ACF Fiorentina, commonly referred to as Fiorentina (), is an Italian professional football club based in Florence, Tuscany, Italy. The original team was founded by a merger in August 1926, while the actual club was refounded in August 2002 fo ...

3–0. By 1966, Tschenscher was one of the top referees in Europe, a fact reflected in his appointment to the first leg of the 1965–66 European Cup semi-final between

Partizan Partizan may refer to: Sport * JSD Partizan, a sports society from Belgrade, Serbia, which includes the following clubs: **AK Partizan, athletics ** Biciklistički Klub Partizan, cycling ** Džudo Klub Partizan, judo **FK Partizan, association fo ...

and

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, and then a group stage match between

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

and Bulgaria at the

1966 FIFA 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 ...

. The following season, he was named as the referee for the 1967 European Cup Final between

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language * Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Fo ...

and

Internazionale Football Club Internazionale Milano, commonly referred to as Internazionale () or simply Inter, and colloquially known as Inter Milan in English-speaking countries, is an Italian professional football club based in Milan, Lombardy. Inter is t ...

. He was appointed to quarter-finals at both

Euro 1968 The 1968 UEFA European Football Championship final tournament was held in Italy. This was the third UEFA European Championship, an event held every four years and organised by UEFA. The final tournament took place between 5 and 10 June 1968. It ...

and

Euro 1972 The 1972 UEFA European Football Championship final tournament was held in Belgium. This was the fourth UEFA European Championship, held every four years and endorsed by UEFA. The final tournament took place between 14 and 18 June 1972. Only four ...

, and a semi-final at Euro 1968, as well as the opening group stage game between

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and the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

at the 1970 World Cup, which saw him become the first referee to show a yellow card in a match. He also refereed a second-round game at the 1974 World Cup. Thus he is the only referee that was nominated by the FIFA for three World Cups. In total he was a FIFA referee for 17 years, which is the record in FIFA history. In 1971, Tschenscher officiated

Pelé Edson Arantes do Nascimento (; born 23 October 1940), known as Pelé (), is a Brazilian former professional footballer who played as a forward. Widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time and labelled "the greatest" by FIFA, ...

's final game for Brazil, at the end of which he received the jersey worn by the Brazilian.

References

External links

Profile
at worldfootball.net
Profile
at WorldReferee.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Tschenscher, Kurt 1928 births 2014 deaths German football referees 1966 FIFA World Cup referees 1970 FIFA World Cup referees 1974 FIFA World Cup referees People from the Province of Silesia People from Strzelce County Olympic football referees Recipients of the Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany UEFA Euro 1968 referees