Joseph Bertram Worrall (born 21 October 1945) is an English former

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 ...

, who operated in

the Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, it is the oldest football league in the world, and was the top-level football league in England from ...

and for

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 comes from

Warrington Warrington () is an industrial town in the Borough of Warrington, borough of the same name in Cheshire, England. The town sits on the banks of the River Mersey and was Historic counties of England, historically part of Lancashire. It is east o ...

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...

, and has the distinction of having refereed both of the major club competition Finals in England.Biographical detail
from an article at the ''Warrington Guardian'' website.

Career

Worrall took up refereeing in 1964, at the age of 19, officiating in the Warrington and District Football League. He eventually progressed to the

Cheshire County League The Cheshire County League was a football league founded in the north west of England in 1919, drawing its teams largely from Cheshire, surrounding English counties and North Wales. Initially the league was dominated by the reserve teams of Fo ...

. He was appointed a Football League linesman in 1973, a supplementary referee two years later and one year later gained promotion to the full Referees List in 1976 at the age of only thirty. He was appointed as a

referee in 1981, serving the world body for 11 years until 1991, when he had to step down due to age restrictions. He was given control of the first of his two major domestic competition Finals on 24 April 1988, when

Luton Town Luton Town Football Club is a professional association football, football club from Luton, Bedfordshire, England. The club currently competes in EFL League One, the third level of the English football league system. Nicknamed "The Hatters", L ...

defeated

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

by three goals to two at

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 the London Borou ...

in the League Cup final of that year. Worrall awarded Arsenal a penalty in the last ten minutes, with the score at 2–1 to the 'Gunners', but

Nigel Winterburn Nigel Winterburn (born 11 December 1963) is an English former professional footballer who made 687 appearances in the Football League and Premier League. He was capped twice by England, in 1989 and 1993. Winterburn played primarily as a left ba ...

failed to convert it. On 20 May 1989, he stepped out again at Wembley to take charge of the

FA Cup final The FA Cup Final is the last match in the FA Cup, Football Association Challenge Cup. It has regularly been one of the List of sports attendance figures, most attended domestic football events in the world, with an official attendance of 89,472 ...

between

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

and Everton, which finished 3–2 to Liverpool after

extra time Overtime (OT) or extra time (ET) is an additional period of play to bring a game to a decision and avoid declaring the match a tie or draw where the scores are the same. In some sports, this extra period is played only if the game is required t ...

, the scores being tied at 1-1 after 90 minutes. Worrall was the referee for the 1992 European Championships qualifier 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

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

at the

Stadio Arechi The Arechi Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium in Salerno, Italy. It is currently used mostly for association football, football matches and is the home stadium of U.S. Salernitana 1919. The stadium holds 37,800. It was opened in 1990, replacing t ...

Salerno Salerno (, ; ; ) is an ancient city and ''comune'' (municipality) in Campania, southwestern Italy, and is the capital of the namesake province, being the second largest city in the region by number of inhabitants, after Naples. It is located ...

, on 1 May 1991. Italy were the victors by 3–1.Euro 92 qualifying match
Italy v. Hungary, 1991 (also confirming Worrall's middle name): match statistics at the

UEFA.com 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 ...

Official website. His last appointment on the FIFA list, and his highest international honour, was to referee the 1992 UEFA Cup final first leg at the Stadio Delle Alpi on 29 April 1992 between

Torino Turin ( , ; ; , then ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The city is main ...

of Italy and

Ajax Ajax may refer to: Greek mythology and tragedy * Ajax the Great, a Greek mythological hero, son of King Telamon and Periboea * Ajax the Lesser, a Greek mythological hero, son of Oileus, the king of Locris * Ajax (play), ''Ajax'' (play), by the an ...

of the Netherlands. The score from that match was 2-2, but after a 0–0 draw in the second leg in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

, Ajax were declared winners on away goals.

Retirement

He was appointed as one of the first Premier League referees in 1992. He reached the standard retirement age at the end of the 1993–1994 season but was granted a one-year extension as a result of his strong performances. He retired from refereeing at the end of the 1994–1995 season. However, he continued his involvement in the game by becoming a referees' assessor and match delegate.Joe Worral, Premiership match delegate
Aston Villa v. Charlton, 2002, as an example: pre-match report at the

BBC Sport BBC Sport is the sports division of the BBC, providing national sports coverage for BBC BBC Television, television, BBC Radio, radio and BBC Online, online. The BBC holds the television and radio UK broadcasting rights to several sports, broadc ...

website.

References

Print

*Football League Handbooks, 1973-1995

Internet

{{DEFAULTSORT:Worrall, Joe 1945 births English football referees FA Cup final referees Sportspeople from Warrington Living people