Pedro Escartín Morán (8 August 1902 – 21 May 1998) was a Spanish

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 ...

player,

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 ...

coach Coach may refer to: Guidance/instruction * Coach (sport), a director of Athletes' training and activities * Coaching, the practice of guiding an individual through a process ** Acting coach, a teacher who trains performers Transportation * Coac ...

journalist A journalist is a person who gathers information in the form of text, audio or pictures, processes it into a newsworthy form and disseminates it to the public. This is called journalism. Roles Journalists can work in broadcast, print, advertis ...

and

author In legal discourse, an author is the creator of an original work that has been published, whether that work exists in written, graphic, visual, or recorded form. The act of creating such a work is referred to as authorship. Therefore, a sculpt ...

. He was an international referee from 1928 to 1948, and a member of the

FIFA The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (), more commonly known by its acronym FIFA ( ), is the international self-regulatory governing body of association football, beach soccer, and futsal. It was founded on 21 May 1904 to o ...

Disciplinary Committee for 27 years. He also went on to manage the

Spain national football team The Spain national football team () has represented Spain in men's international Association football, football competitions since 1920. It is governed by the Royal Spanish Football Federation, the governing body for football in Spain. Spain i ...

in two different tenures. He was also a journalist in Spain for most of his life, and is a well-respected figure of the sport in Spain in the 20th century.

Career as referee

Born in

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

, Escartin played as a youngster at the club ''Real Sociedad Gimnástica Española'' during the beginnings of professionalism in

Spanish football Football is the most popular sport in Spain, with 61% of the population interested in it. Spain has some of the most influential teams in Europe (Real Madrid, Barcelona, Atlético de Madrid, Sevilla, Valencia, and others) as well as many playe ...

. He had to abandon playing in 1923 due to a

pleura The pleurae (: pleura) are the two flattened closed sacs filled with pleural fluid, each ensheathing each lung and lining their surrounding tissues, locally appearing as two opposing layers of serous membrane separating the lungs from the med ...

l illness. He began officiating football matches in 1924, and in 1928, he participated in his first international match, being in charge of the 1928 Olympic tournament semifinal between

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

and

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

. He participated at the

1934 World Cup The 1934 FIFA World Cup was the 2nd edition of the FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football championship for senior men's national teams. It took place in Italy from 27 May to 10 June 1934. The 1934 World Cup was the first in whi ...

, appearing in four matches as a linesman (assistant referee), and being the first Spanish referee to participate in a World Cup. He went on to become one of the most prestigious referees in Spain and Europe in the 1930s and 1940s. His last international match was a friendly between

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

and

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

in 1948, year in which he retired from refereeing. He became a member of the

Disciplinary Committee in 1940, remaining at that role for 27 years. He was also President of the Spanish ''Colegio Nacional de Arbitros'' (the national referees association) from 1952 to 1961.

Coaching career

Escartín's first tenure in charge of the

was from 1952 to 1953 – succeeding

Ricardo Zamora Ricardo Zamora Martínez (; 21 January 1901 – 8 September 1978) was a Spanish footballer and manager. He played as a goalkeeper for, among others, RCD Espanyol, FC Barcelona and Real Madrid. As an international he played for Spain. As a man ...

– and his second one in 1961, the latter involving all four matches of the 1962 World Cup qualification campaign (of which Spain won three and drew one). After helping Spain qualify to its third World Cup finals appearance and its first since 1950, Escartin ended his second period as national coach, as previously arranged, on 31 December 1961. His overall record as Spain's coach included 7 wins, 3 draws and 2 losses in 12 matches.

Journalism

Having begun his works in journalism in 1920, Escartín combined them with his activities as player, referee, and coach; in 1961, he became a full-time journalist, and worked for different agencies such as ''Heraldo de Madrid'', ''El Alcázar'', ''Pueblo'', ''La Prensa'', and '' Marca'', among others. He wrote books, essays, and thousands of articles about football for newspapers and other publications. His ''Reglamento de Fútbol Asociación / comentarios y aclaraciones por Pedro Escartín Morán'' (Rules of Association Football with comments and clarifications) from 1941 remains to date an authoritative source.Source: http://www.vistazoalaprensa.com/firmas_art.asp?Id=1620

Trivia

The stadium of

CD Guadalajara Club Deportivo Guadalajara S.A de C.V. (;), nicknamed ''"Chivas"'' () and simply known as Guadalajara or internationally as Chivas de Guadalajara, is a Mexican professional Association football, football club based in the Guadalajara metropolit ...

Guadalajara, Spain Guadalajara ( , ) is a city and municipality in Spain, located in the autonomous community of Castilla–La Mancha. It is the capital of the Province of Guadalajara. Guadalajara lies on the central part of the Iberian Peninsula at roughly me ...

was named after him.

Career as referee

Coaching career

Journalism

Trivia

References

Further reading