Sándor Puhl (14 July 1955 – 20 May 2021) was a Hungarian football referee, mostly known for supervising four matches in the

1994 FIFA World Cup The 1994 FIFA World Cup was the 15th FIFA World Cup, the world championship for men's national soccer teams. It was hosted by the United States and took place from June 17 to July 17, 1994, at nine venues across the country. The United States ...

in the United States, including

the final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of cont ...

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

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 ...

. He also refereed

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competi ...

matches, including the 1997 UEFA Champions League Final between

Borussia Dortmund Ballspielverein Borussia 09 e. V. Dortmund, commonly known as Borussia Dortmund (), BVB (), or simply Dortmund (), is a German professional sports club based in Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia. It is best known for its men's professional fo ...

and

Juventus Juventus Football Club (from la, iuventūs, 'youth'; ), colloquially known as Juve (), is a professional football club based in Turin, Piedmont, Italy, that competes in the Serie A, the top tier of the Italian football league system. Founded in ...

. Dortmund ended up being 3–1 winners. He was elected as IFFHS' World's Best Referee of the Year four times in a row between 1994 and 1997. After retiring as a referee, he was Deputy Chairman of the Hungarian Football Association from 2000 to 2006. He also worked as a co-commentator for a Hungarian sports TV channel. Puhl spoke Hungarian, German, Italian and English. Puhl died on 20 May 2021, at the age of 65, from post-

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quick ...

complications during the

COVID-19 pandemic in Hungary The COVID-19 pandemic in Hungary is part of the ongoing worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 () caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (). On 4 March 2020, the first cases in Hungary were announced. The first coron ...

References

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1955 births 2021 deaths Hungarian football referees UEFA Champions League referees FIFA World Cup referees FIFA World Cup Final match officials 1994 FIFA World Cup referees People from Miskolc UEFA Euro 1992 referees UEFA Euro 1996 referees Deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic in Hungary {{Hungary-footy-bio-stub