Mário Vianna (6 September 1902 – 16 October 1989) was a Brazilian

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

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 title ...

. He is nominated as an official referee list of the

1950 FIFA World Cup The 1950 FIFA World Cup was the 4th edition of the FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international Association football, football championship for senior men's national teams. It was held in Brazil from 24 June to 16 July 1950. It was the first Wo ...

and

1954 FIFA World Cup The 1954 FIFA World Cup was the 5th edition of the FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international Association football, football tournament for senior men's national teams of the nations affiliated to FIFA. It was held in Switzerland from 16 June ...

Personal life

Mário Vianna was born in

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro, or simply Rio, is the capital of the Rio de Janeiro (state), state of Rio de Janeiro. It is the List of cities in Brazil by population, second-most-populous city in Brazil (after São Paulo) and the Largest cities in the America ...

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

in 1902. He was a police officer and began to follow the

Campeonato Carioca The Campeonato Carioca (Carioca Championship), officially known as Campeonato Estadual do Rio de Janeiro (Rio de Janeiro State Championship), also commonly known as the Cariocão, is the top-flight professional state football league in the Br ...

football matches in the 1930s. Due to his imposition of respect and his knowledge of the game, he was invited to act as a referee in 1943. He was successful refereeing his first matches, gaining notoriety until refereeing the main matches of Rio de Janeiro. Thus, he became one of the three Brazilian referees to referee the 1950 World Cup, alongside

Mário Gardelli Mário Gardelli (born 1908, date of death unknown) was a Brazilian football referee. Career He officiated in the following major competitions: *1949 South American Championship (5 matches) *1950 FIFA World Cup (1 match)FIFA The Fédérat ...

and Alberto da Gama Malcher. At the age of 51, he refereed again in the 1954 World Cup. He also worked as a sportscaster, and was the only broadcaster to narrate the game between Brazil and Hungary ( Batalha de Berna). In the 60s, after retiring as a referee, he became a sports commentator for Rádio Globo, alongside big names in Brazilian sports chronicle such as

João Saldanha João Alves Jobin Saldanha (3 July 1917 – 12 July 1990) was a Brazilian journalism, journalist and association football, football manager. He coached the Brazil national football team during the South American Qualifying to the 1970 FIFA W ...

. Mário Vianna died in 1989 in Rio de Janeiro, at age of 87, victim of pneumonia.

Controversies

He was responsible for the only sending off of

Domingos da Guia Domingos Antônio da Guia (born in Rio de Janeiro, November 19, 1912 – died in Rio, May 18, 2000) was a Brazilian footballer. He played in four matches for Brazil in the 1938 FIFA World Cup finals. He is regarded as one of the best Brazilian ...

. After the Switzerland-Italy game in 1954, he confessed years later that he punched striker

Giampiero Boniperti Giampiero Boniperti (; 4 July 1928 – 17 June 2021) was an Italian association football, footballer who played his List of one-club men in association football, entire 15-season career at Juventus FC, Juventus between 1946 and 1961, winning five ...

, after being questioned by him. At the final whistle of the Brazilian elimination against Hungary, Mário, who worked as a narrator in the game, started a conspiracy theory which said that the English referee Arthur Ellis had been bought by the Communist Party of Hungary. In 1957, three years after the incident, Vianna refereed a friendly match between Honvéd, with

Ferenc Puskas Ferenc () is a given name of Hungarian origin. It is a cognate of Francis, Francisco, Francesco, François, Frank and Franz. People with the name include: * Ferenc Batthyány (1497–1566), Hungarian magnate and general * Ferenc Bene (1944–20 ...

, and

Flamengo Clube de Regatas do Flamengo (; ), more commonly referred to as simply Flamengo, is a Brazilian multi sports club based in Rio de Janeiro, in the neighborhood of Gávea. It was founded and named after the Flamengo, Rio de Janeiro, Flamengo n ...

, in Budapest.

Matches at the FIFA World Cup

Altogether Vianna had two participations in World Cups as referee, and two as assistant referee:

Main referee

Assistant referee

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vianna, Mário 1902 births 1989 deaths Brazilian football referees Sportspeople from Rio de Janeiro (city) 1950 FIFA World Cup referees 1954 FIFA World Cup referees SE Palmeiras managers