James Finney (17 August 1924 – 1 April 2008"Cup Final referee passes away"
''ClaretsMad.co.uk'' website. Retrieved on 3 April 2008.) 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 ...

football referee during the 1960s and 1970s, active on the FIFA list. He was born in St Helens in Lancashire (now Merseyside) but was based during his refereeing career in Hereford. Outside football he worked as a brewery representative.

Refereeing career

Finney became a Football League linesman in 1957, stepping up to referee in 1959. He refereed the

Amateur Cup An amateur () is generally considered a person who pursues an avocation independent from their source of income. Amateurs and their pursuits are also described as popular, informal, self-taught, user-generated, DIY, and hobbyist. History Hi ...

final of that year. Finney then took charge of the

1962 FA Cup Final The 1962 FA Cup Final took place on 5 May 1962 at Wembley Stadium and was won by Tottenham Hotspur over Burnley, by a 3–1 scoreline. Due to the lack of passion and excitement, replaced by patience and cautious play, the final was dubbed "The Che ...

between

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 ...

and

Burnley Burnley () is a town and the administrative centre of the wider Borough of Burnley in Lancashire, England, with a 2001 population of 73,021. It is north of Manchester and east of Preston, Lancashire, Preston, at the confluence of the River C ...

. Though the normal practice at the time was for the winning captain to keep the match ball, Danny Blanchflower presented Finney with the ball at the end of the game. He is reported to be one of five freemasons to have refereed the

FA Cup Final The FA Cup Final, commonly referred to in England as just the Cup Final, is the last match in the Football Association Challenge Cup. It has regularly been one of the most attended domestic football events in the world, with an official atten ...

. Finney had been held in high regard within the domestic game for some time before this match. He was appointed as a linesman in the first European Nations Cup Final held in

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in 1960, assisting Arthur Ellis. In May 1963, Finney was also the referee during the

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versus

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match at Hampden Park, which he abandoned after 79 minutes. Finney later expressed concern that he thought "somebody would have been seriously hurt". Later he was selected as one of the English referees at 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 ...

, gaining some notoriety there for his handling of the

Uruguay Uruguay (; ), officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay ( es, República Oriental del Uruguay), is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast; while bordering ...

versus

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quarter-final A single-elimination, knockout, or sudden death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of each match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final matc ...

in which he

sent off In sports, an ejection (also known as dismissal, sending-off, disqualification, or early shower) is the removal of a participant from a contest due to a violation of the sport's rules. The exact violations that lead to an ejection vary depending ...

Horacio Troche and Héctor Silva. That was the same day on which the

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

referee

Rudolf Kreitlein Rudolf Kreitlein (14 November 1919, in Fürth – 31 July 2012, in Stuttgart) was a German international football referee, active in the 1960s. England v Argentina, 1966 World Cup Kreitlein is perhaps best known for having refereed the 1966 ...

sent off

Argentinian Argentines (mistakenly translated Argentineans in the past; in Spanish ( masculine) or ( feminine)) are people identified with the country of Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Argentines, ...

player

Antonio Rattin Antonio is a masculine given name of Etruscan origin deriving from the root name Antonius. It is a common name among Romance language-speaking populations as well as the Balkans and Lusophone Africa. It has been among the top 400 most popular mal ...

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 ...

, leading to a suggestion of partiality against the

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an referees. Finney was a BBC studio pundit for the 1970 World Cup and he officiated at the 1971 League Cup final at Wembley, and had already been appointed to the European Cup final at the same venue. However, he and his wife were seriously injured on 23 April 1971 in a car accident as they were travelling to a Preston-Aston Villa match at which he was due to officiate the following day. Although the pair recovered he was unfit to take charge of the European Cup Final, his place being taken by Jack Taylor. He expressed a hope that he would be able to have a few more matches before he reached the mandatory retirement age of 47 at the end of the 1971–1972 season. However a recurrence of an arm injury shortly afterwards meant that he was forced to retire without refereeing again. He can be seen officiating as a local celebrity in film of The Herefordshire Primary Schools cup final in 1963 in film held by the Cinema Museum in London.

Football administration

Finney later became an official at

Hereford United Hereford United Football Club was an association football club based in Hereford, England. They played at Edgar Street for their entire history. They were nicknamed 'The Whites' or 'The Lilywhites', after their predominantly white kit, or 'Th ...

, and was secretary of Cardiff City.Profile
: Richard Whitehead's ''Where Are They Now?'' football history feature, from Bob Dunning's website; Retrieved on 2 April 2008

Death

Finney died in hospital in Hereford on 1 April 2008.

References

Sources

* Taylor, Jack (1976) World Soccer Referee, Pelham, p93-94 (details of accident) {{DEFAULTSORT:Finney, Jim 1924 births 2008 deaths English football referees FA Cup final referees FIFA World Cup referees People from Hereford 1966 FIFA World Cup referees English Football League referees