Kenneth Dagnall (30 January 1921 – March 1995
and latter place of residence: article at the ''ChorleyCitizen.co.uk'' website.) 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 ...

former football referee, who officiated in

the Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional association football, football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in Association football around the wor ...

and for FIFA, especially during the

1966 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 ...

held in England. He was born in Blackburn and played as an amateur for Accrington Stanley. However it was as a referee that he was to make his name in football. Outside football he worked as housing officer in Bolton.Burnley vs Everton football programme referee profile p4, 30 December 1967

Career

As a referee he worked his way through the Lancashire Combination to ultimately reach the Football League, initially as a linesman in 1954 and then promoted to the Referees List only one year later. During his time on the Football League List he was based in

Bolton Bolton (, locally ) is a large town in Greater Manchester in North West England, formerly a part of Lancashire. A former mill town, Bolton has been a production centre for textiles since Flemish weavers settled in the area in the 14th ...

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancash ...

, latterly living in the

Great Lever Great Lever is a suburb of Bolton, Greater Manchester, England. Historically in Lancashire, it is south of Bolton town centre and the same distance north of Farnworth. The district is served by frequent buses running to Bolton town centre, Farnwo ...

area of the town. He reached the international list by 1962. He took charge of two matches in the 1966 World Cup. The first was the 3–1 win by

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

over

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 ...

in Group C at

Goodison Park Goodison Park is a association football, football stadium in the Walton, Liverpool, Walton area of Liverpool, England. It has been the home stadium of Premier League club Everton F.C. since its completion in 1892. Located in a residential area ...

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 populat ...

, on 15 July 1966. This was followed by the third/fourth place play-off game (or "Bronze Final") at

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 ...

on 28 July 1966, played between the losing semi-finalists,

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 the

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, and which the Portuguese won 2–1. It has been suggested that he would have instead refereed the World Cup Final of that year if

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 ...

had been eliminated from the tournament. Domestically, he was then selected to handle the

1967 FA Cup Final The 1967 FA Cup Final was the 86th final of the FA Cup. It took place on 20 May 1967 at Wembley Stadium and was contested between Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea. It was the first FA Cup Final to be contested between two teams from London, and is t ...

at Wembley on 20 May 1967, when

Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as Tottenham () or Spurs, is a professional football club based in Tottenham, London, England. It competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English football. The team has playe ...

beat

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by 2 goals to 1. Shortly after his retirement in 1968 he suggested in the Bolton Evening News that a band of around fifteen referees should take charge of the most important matches, allowing them a greater number of games at the top level.reported in the Football League Review, volume 3, issue 14, November 1968 This did not occur at the time but a similar system now operates in English professional football.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dagnall, Ken 1921 births Sportspeople from Bolton English football referees FIFA World Cup referees FA Cup final referees 1995 deaths 1966 FIFA World Cup referees English Football League referees