Menachem Ashkenazi (; 6 August 1934 – 13 November 2000) was an Israeli international

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 ...

, born in Bulgaria, active during the 1960s and 1970s. He was the first

Asia Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...

n referee who officiated in a World Cup.

Biography

Born in 1934 in a Jewish Sephardic family in Bulgaria, in 1936 he emigrated with his parents to

Mandatory Palestine Mandatory Palestine was a British Empire, British geopolitical entity that existed between 1920 and 1948 in the Palestine (region), region of Palestine, and after 1922, under the terms of the League of Nations's Mandate for Palestine. After ...

. Since his childhood he played soccer and distinguished himself at 16 as a player in the youth football team of the club

Hapoel Petah Tikva Hapoel Petah Tikva F.C. () is an Israeli professional football club based in the city of Petah Tikva, currently playing in Israeli Premier League. Its most successful period was throughout the 1950s and 1960s, in which the club won six League C ...

. But following a severe fracture of his leg, he had to stop his career as a football player. Ashkenazi had a long career as 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 ...

official, supervising international matches as a referee or linesman during the period from 1961 to 1986. He officiated in the final of the 1964 Olympic tournament (the only Israeli referee ever to do so) and also in the

1966 FIFA World Cup The 1966 FIFA World Cup was the eighth FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial Association football, football tournament for men's senior national teams. It was played in England from 11 to 30 July 1966. England defeated West Germany 4–2 in the 1966 FI ...

. He was in charge in one of the most memorable matches of that World Cup,

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's 5–3 win over

North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders China and Russia to the north at the Yalu River, Yalu (Amnok) an ...

in the quarterfinal. His other international competitions as a referee included

1966 Events January * January 1 – In a coup, Colonel Jean-Bédel Bokassa takes over as military ruler of the Central African Republic, ousting President David Dacko. * January 3 – 1966 Upper Voltan coup d'état: President Maurice Yaméogo i ...

and 1978 World Cup qualifiers.RSSSF
"World Cup 1978 qualifications"
Retrieved on 28 April 2013.

References

1934 births 2000 deaths Israeli Sephardi Jews Bulgarian Jews in Israel Bulgarian emigrants to Mandatory Palestine Israeli people of Bulgarian-Jewish descent Israeli football referees Olympic football referees 1966 FIFA World Cup referees {{Israel-footy-bio-stub

Biography

See also

References