Charles George Reinier Corver (16 January 1936 – 10 November 2020) was a Dutch

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 ...

Career

He was decorated twice by the Queen (

Order of Orange-Nassau The Order of Orange-Nassau () is a civil and military Dutch order of chivalry founded on 4 April 1892 by the queen regent, Emma of the Netherlands. The order is a chivalric order open to "everyone who has performed acts of special merits for ...

) and the football association (

KNVB The Royal Dutch Football Association (, ; KNVB ) is the governing body of football in the Netherlands. It organises the main Dutch football leagues (Eredivisie and Eerste Divisie), the amateur leagues, the KNVB Cup, and the Dutch men's and women ...

UEFA The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; ; ) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs football, futsal and beach soccer, beach football in Europe and the List of transcontinental countries#A ...

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 ...

). He refereed the

1982 World Cup The 1982 FIFA World Cup was the 12th FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial football tournament for men's senior national teams, and was played in Spain from 13 June to 11 July 1982. The tournament was won by Italy, who defeated West Germany 3–1 in th ...

semifinal between Germany and France in

Seville, Spain Seville ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Spanish autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the River Guadalquivir, in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula. Seville ...

, when he deemed goalkeeper

Harald Schumacher Harald Anton "Toni" Schumacher (born 6 March 1954) is a German former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. At club level, he won a Bundesliga title and three DFB-Pokal titles with 1. FC Köln. At international level, he represen ...

's collision with

Patrick Battiston Patrick Raymond Jean Battiston (born 12 March 1957) is a French former footballer who played as a defender for the France national team in three World Cups and won UEFA Euro 1984. At club level, he played for Metz, Saint-Étienne, Bordeaux, ...

to be not a foul. Battiston remained unconscious for over a minute and sustained the loss of three teeth and a damaged vertebrae. This failure is often considered one of the worst examples of poor refereeing decisions in football. Corver was a referee at two World Cups and two European championships. He refereed four European Cup finals, ten semifinals, and a final World Cup for clubs in

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 ...

. More than 140 international matches and more than 600 national matches. After his last final (1983) in Portugal he was an observer for UEFA-FIFA and KNVB for 22 years and a member of the disciplinary committee for sixteen years. His profession was national sales manager at

Heineken Heineken Lager Beer (), or simply Heineken (), is a Dutch pale lager beer with 5% alcohol by volume produced by the Dutch brewing company Heineken N.V. Heineken beer is sold in a green bottle with a red star. History On 15 February 1864, ...

References

External links

* * * * 1936 births 2020 deaths Dutch football referees Sportspeople from Leiden People's Party for Freedom and Democracy politicians 1982 FIFA World Cup referees 1978 FIFA World Cup referees UEFA Euro 1980 referees {{Netherlands-footy-bio-stub