Michel Kitabdjian (7 May 1930 – 17 March 2020) was a French referee. He officiated at the 1975 European Cup Final between

Leeds United Leeds United Football Club is a professional football club based in Leeds, West Yorkshire in England. The club competes in the Premier League, the highest level of England's football league system, and plays its home matches at Elland Road ...

and Bayern Munich, disallowing a goal by Leeds United's

Peter Lorimer Peter Patrick Lorimer (14 December 1946 – 20 March 2021) was a Scottish professional footballer, best known for his time with Leeds United and Scotland during the late 1960s and early 1970s. An attacking midfielder and the club's youngest-ever ...

for offside and denying Leeds two penalty appeals as Franz Beckenbauer first handled the ball in the box and then brought down Allan Clarke in a tackle. Leeds fans became angry at the referee, and one fan managed to access the playing field after the final whistle. After gendarmes removed him, other Leeds fans began rioting in the stands as a result of the feeling of robbery. The official was rated incredibly poorly by FIFA officials observing the game but was not formally investigated. Kitabdjian also served as a FIFA referee. He officiated at the 1968 Olympic tournament in Mexico City, as well as qualifiers for the 1966,

1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (''Extreme''). Between 10,000 and ...

, 1974, and

1978 World Cup The 1978 FIFA World Cup was the 11th edition of the FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial international football world championship tournament among the men's senior national teams. It was held in Argentina between 1 and 25 June. The Cup was won by t ...

s, and the

1968 The year was highlighted by protests and other unrests that occurred worldwide. Events January–February * January 5 – " Prague Spring": Alexander Dubček is chosen as leader of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. * Janu ...

1972 Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using mean solar tim ...

, and

1976 Events January * January 3 – The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights enters into force. * January 5 – The Pol Pot regime proclaims a new constitution for Democratic Kampuchea. * January 11 – The 1976 ...

European Championships. Kitabdjian had Armenian roots. He died on 17 March 2020 at the age of 89.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kitabdjian, Michel 1930 births 2020 deaths French football referees Olympic football referees Sportspeople from Nice French people of Armenian descent