Kurt Waldemar Tschenscher (5 October 1928 – 13 August 2014)
/ref> was a German

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly ...

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 tit ...

. Born in Schimischow, Weimar Germany (today Szymiszów, Poland), Tschenscher took up refereeing in 1948 and by 1953 he was part of the

German Football Association The German Football Association (german: Deutscher Fußball-Bund ; DFB ) is the governing body of football in Germany. A founding member of both FIFA and UEFA, the DFB has jurisdiction for the German football league system and is in charge o ...

's group of top referees. Within another five years, he was promoted to the FIFA list of international referees. In October 1959, he refereed the second leg of

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1960 European Nations' Cup The 1960 European Nations' Cup was the first edition of the UEFA European Championship, held every four years and organised by UEFA. The first tournament was held in France. It was won by the Soviet Union, who beat Yugoslavia 2–1 in Paris afte ...

first round win over

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. In September 1962, he took charge of the replay of the 1962 European Cup Winners' Cup Final, in which

Atlético Madrid Club Atlético de Madrid, S.A.D. (; meaning "Athletic Club of Madrid"), known simply as Atleti in the Spanish-speaking world and commonly referred to at international level as Atlético Madrid, is a Spanish professional football club based i ...

beat

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3–0. By 1966, Tschenscher was one of the top referees in Europe, a fact reflected in his appointment to the first leg of the 1965–66 European Cup semi-final between Partizan and

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, and then a group stage match 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 Bulgaria at the

1966 FIFA 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 th ...

. The following season, he was named as the referee for the 1967 European Cup Final between

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and Internazionale. He was appointed to quarter-finals at both Euro 1968 and Euro 1972, and a semi-final at Euro 1968, as well as the opening group stage game between

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and the

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at the 1970 World Cup, which saw him become the first referee to show a yellow card in a match. He also refereed a second-round game at the

1974 World Cup The 1974 FIFA World Cup was the tenth FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial football tournament for men's senior national teams, and was played in West Germany (and West Berlin) between 13 June and 7 July. The tournament marked the first time that ...

. Thus he is the only referee that was nominated by the FIFA for three World Cups. In total he was a FIFA referee for 17 years, which is the record in FIFA history. In 1971, Tschenscher officiated

Pelé Edson Arantes do Nascimento (; born 23 October 1940), known as Pelé (), is a Brazilian former professional footballer who played as a forward. Widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time and labelled "the greatest" by FIFA ...

's final game for Brazil, at the end of which he received the jersey worn by the Brazilian.

References

External links

Profile
at worldfootball.net
Profile
at WorldReferee.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Tschenscher, Kurt 1928 births 2014 deaths German football referees 1966 FIFA World Cup referees 1970 FIFA World Cup referees 1974 FIFA World Cup referees People from the Province of Silesia People from Strzelce County Olympic football referees Recipients of the Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany UEFA Euro 1968 referees