Neil Midgley (9 September 1942 – 8 July 2001
calculated from article, plus other biography: ''ThisIsLancashire.co.uk'') 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 ...

from

Salford Salford () is a city and the largest settlement in the City of Salford metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. In 2011, Salford had a population of 103,886. It is also the second and only other city in the metropolitan county afte ...

Career

Midgley joined the Eccles Referees' Association in 1961 after taking up refereeing, being awarded a life membership in 1978.More information
: from the ''Eccles Referees' Association'' website. He became a Football League linesman in 1974 and two years later a supplementary referee, graduating to the full list one year later in 1977. In April 1982 he took charge of an FA Cup semi-final 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

Leicester City Leicester ( ) is a city, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest settlement in the East Midlands. The city lies on the River Soar and close to the eastern end of the National ...

and that summer was elevated to the FIFA list of international referees. In 1985, he was appointed to the

Milk Cup SuperCupNI, formerly called the Northern Ireland Youth Soccer Tournament and the Dale Farm Milk Cup, is an international youth football tournament held annually in Northern Ireland. The cup matches are mainly played in the North Coast area of ...

Final between Norwich City and Sunderland with the Norfolk team winning via a

Gordon Chisholm Gordon William Chisholm (born 8 April 1960 in Glasgow) is a Scottish professional football former player and manager. Chisholm played as a central defender for Sunderland, Hibernian, Dundee and Partick Thistle. After retiring as a player, Chis ...

own goal. At the start of the 1986–87 season, he was awarded control of the

1986 FA Charity Shield The 1986 FA Charity Shield (also known as the General Motors – FA Charity Shield for sponsorship reasons) was the 64th Charity Shield, a football match contested by the holders of the Football League First Division and FA Cup. This edition featu ...

match between Everton and

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

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 ...

, which finished 1–1, the trophy being shared. On 16 May 1987, he stepped out once more at Wembley to take charge of 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

Coventry City Coventry City Football Club is a professional association football club based in Coventry, West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. The team currently compete in the EFL Championship, Championship, the second tier of the English footbal ...

and

, which finished 3–2 to the 'Sky Blues'.FA Cup Final 1987
: ''FA-CupFinals.co.uk'' website. Midgley reached the standard retirement age in 1991 but was granted a one-year extension due to his strong performances. It was on 17 February in this year that he controversially did not award Everton a penalty at Anfield against Liverpool in the FA Cup when

Pat Nevin Patrick Kevin Francis Michael Nevin (born 6 September 1963) is a Scottish former professional footballer who played as a winger. In a 20-year career, he appeared for Clyde, Chelsea, Everton, Tranmere Rovers, Kilmarnock and Motherwell. He won 2 ...

was brought down in the Liverpool penalty area. The Co-commentator for BBC coverage on that day was

Trevor Brooking Sir Trevor David Brooking, (born 2 October 1948) is a former England international footballer, manager, pundit and football administrator; he now works as director of football development in England. He spent almost his entire career at West Ha ...

who remarked that "you will never see a more clear cut penalty in my opinion". Midgley was in charge of a 1992 FA Cup semi-final between Sunderland and Norwich before retiring at the end of the season. He then became a referees' assessor for the newly formulated

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

competition, and for

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 ...

. However, in 1999, he was replaced as a Premiership assessor by

Martin Bodenham Martin John Dale Bodenham (born 23 April 1950)
from Extra information on Midgley
:

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

Observer An observer is one who engages in observation or in watching an experiment. Observer may also refer to: Computer science and information theory * In information theory, any system which receives information from an object * State observer in con ...

website. He had also been a past president of the Football League Referees and Linesmen's Association, and was an active member of the Eccles Referees' Association. He became the ERA chairman early in his career, and served as their president from 1983 to 1989 and from 1992 until his death.

Death

Neil Midgley died at the Little Hulton Hospice in Salford, a few months after being diagnosed with cancer. He was 58. In his honour, The Eccles Referees' Association changed the name of its award for the senior level Referee of the Year from the President's Cup to the Neil Midgley Memorial Trophy. Barbara Midgley presents the trophy to the winner each year.

Print references

*Football League Handbooks, 1974–1992 – confirmation of dates of joining lists of referees and linesmen

Internet

External links

'Too many refs show cards like a gunslinger'
– Will Buckley's interview with Midgley at

the Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

website {{DEFAULTSORT:Midgley, Neil 1942 births English football referees FA Cup Final referees 2001 deaths People from Kearsley Sportspeople from Salford