William Ling (1 August 1908 – 8 May 1984) 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 Stapleford,

Cambridgeshire Cambridgeshire (abbreviated Cambs.) is a Counties of England, county in the East of England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the north-east, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and North ...

, who refereed the 1954 FIFA World Cup Final.

1948 Olympic Games

Ling rose quickly through the ranks as a referee. He was initially on the supplementary list as a

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 ...

match official but even so was selected to participate in the 1948 Olympic Games football tournament along with

George Reader George Reader (22 November 1896 – 13 July 1978) was the fourth man to referee a FIFA World Cup Final, the first Englishman (one of only 10 match officials from the United Kingdom) to do so, and the oldest match official at any World Cup in hi ...

, Stanley Boardman and A. C. Williams from

Brighton Brighton () is a seaside resort and one of the two main areas of the City of Brighton and Hove in the county of East Sussex, England. It is located south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze A ...

. Ling refereed both the first round match involving

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

, the quarter-final involving

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

and was then selected for the final between Sweden and

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

. The final itself turned on two penalty decisions early in the second half (both which were denied to the Yugoslavians) and which affected their temperament.

Bernard Joy Bernard Joy (29 October 1911 – 18 July 1984) was an English footballer and journalist. He is notable for being the last amateur player to play for the England national team. Biography Joy was born in Fulham, London and educated at Cardinal ...

, in the 1960 publication "Association Football" (p. 470), wrote: "The setbacks rattled the Yugoslavs, their behaviour got out of hand for a spell and they did not recover their rhythm. What made matters worse was when

Gunnar Gren Johan Gunnar Gren (; 31 October 1920 – 10 November 1991) was a Swedish professional football player and coach. He is best remembered for playing for IFK Göteborg and A.C. Milan. A creative forward, known for his technical skill, vision, tac ...

converted a penalty midway through the second half. It is true that

Gunnar Nordahl Nils Gunnar Nordahl (; 19 October 1921 – 15 September 1995) was a Swedish professional footballer. A highly prolific, powerful, and physically strong striker, with an eye for goal, he is best known for his spell at AC Milan from 1949 to 1956, ...

was bowled over, but the offence looked no worse than those committed by the Swedish centre half Bertil Nordahl."

1951 FA Cup Final

By the start of the next season ( 1948–49) Ling had become a

referee, and within 3 years had been appointed to control an

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 ...

. Ling refereed the

in 1951, in which

Newcastle United Newcastle United Football Club is an English professional football club, based in Newcastle upon Tyne, that plays in the Premier League – the top flight of English football. The club was founded in 1892 by the merger of Newcastle East End ...

beat

Blackpool Blackpool is a seaside resort in Lancashire, England. Located on the North West England, northwest coast of England, it is the main settlement within the Borough of Blackpool, borough also called Blackpool. The town is by the Irish Sea, betw ...

with two

Jackie Milburn John Edward Thompson "Jackie" Milburn (11 May 1924 – 9 October 1988) was a football player principally associated with Newcastle United and England, though he also spent four seasons at Linfield. He was also known as Wor Jackie (particularly ...

goals.

1954 World Cup

The 1954 World Cup was only his second international tournament not having been selected for the 1950

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the ' ( FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The tournament ha ...

. He was one of a group of four referees appointed from the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

for the 1954 tournament. The others were

Benjamin Mervyn Griffiths Benjamin Mervyn "Sandy" Griffiths (17 January 1909 – 21 January 1974) was a Welsh football referee from Abertillery, Monmouthshire. In his professional life he was a teacher. Career He first took up a teaching post in Devon but soon returned t ...

from

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

, Arthur Ellis from

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 ...

and Charles Edward Faultless (

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 ...

). In the course of the tournament, Ling had already refereed the Group match between

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia a ...

and

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 ...

(in which the Hungarians had won 8–3 against the West German team of mainly reserve players) and had assisted Arthur Ellis during the

Battle of Berne A battle is an occurrence of combat in warfare between opposing military units of any number or size. A war usually consists of multiple battles. In general, a battle is a military engagement that is well defined in duration, area, and force ...

quarter-final. In the final he was assisted by Griffiths and the

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

Vincenzo Orlandini Vincenzo Orlandini (30 August 1910 – 23 October 1961) was the first Italian to officiate in a FIFA World Cup final match when he ran the line to William Ling in the 1954 World Cup final between Hungary and West Germany. Orlandini had already t ...

.1954 World Cup Statistics
''TotalFootball.org'' website.

The Final

Ling's part in the final, between

and

, became slightly controversial because he accepted Griffith's offside flag in the final minutes to deny

Ferenc Puskás Ferenc Puskás (, ; born Ferenc Purczeld; 1 April 1927 – 17 November 2006) was a Hungarian football player and manager, widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time and the sport's first international superstar. A forward, ...

a 3-3 equalizer that could have sent the game into

extra-time Overtime or extra time is an additional period of play specified under the rules of a sport to bring a game to a decision and avoid declaring the match a tie or draw where the scores are the same. In some sports, this extra period is played onl ...

. West German radio reporter Herbert Zimmermann had called Puskás offside well before he kicked.

Willy Meisl Wilhelm Meisl (26 December 1895 in Vienna – 12 June 1968 in Locarno) was an Austrian-Jewish sports journalist in the 20th century. He was the brother of Austrian national football manager Hugo Meisl. Meisl's writings did much to transform how ...

observed, later, that it appeared that goal keeper

Gyula Grosics Gyula Grosics (; 4 February 1926 – 13 June 2014) was a Hungarian football goalkeeper who played 86 times for the Hungary national football team and was part of the "Golden Team" of the 1950s. Regarded as one of the greatest goalkeepers of all ...

had struck Ling following the final whistle. Nothing came of this incident and the mood amongst the Hungarians had settled when the trophy was handed to the West Germans.

The Miracle of Bern

The final match itself became the subject of a

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 ...

film Miracle of Bern in which the story of the match is told. Joachim Floryszak, a non-League

football referee and

civil servant The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil servants hired on professional merit rather than appointed or elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leaders ...

, starred as Ling after contacting the director

Sönke Wortmann Sönke Wortmann (; 25 August 1959 in Marl, North Rhine-Westphalia) is a German film director and producer. Biography Wortmann's father was a miner. After Wortmann's A-Levels he wanted to become a professional football player and started playing ...

begging to be given a place in the film.

References

Print

*"Association Football",

, 1960.

Internet

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ling, William 1908 births 1984 deaths English football referees FA Cup Final referees FIFA World Cup Final match officials 1954 FIFA World Cup referees Olympic football referees People from Stapleford, Cambridgeshire