William Ling (1 August 1908 – 8 May 1984) was an English

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 ...

from Stapleford,

Cambridgeshire Cambridgeshire (abbreviated Cambs.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England and East Anglia. It is bordered by Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the north-east, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfor ...

, who refereed the 1954 FIFA World Cup Final.

1948 Olympic Games

Ling rose quickly through the ranks as a referee. He was initially on the supplementary list as a

Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional association football, football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, it is the oldest football league in Association football around the world, the w ...

match official but even so was selected to participate in the 1948 Olympic Games football tournament along with George Reader, Stanley Boardman and A. C. Williams from

Brighton Brighton ( ) is a seaside resort in the city status in the United Kingdom, city of Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, England, south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze Age Britain, Bronze Age, R ...

. Ling refereed both the first round match involving

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

, the quarter-final involving

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 was then selected for the final between Sweden and

Yugoslavia , common_name = Yugoslavia , life_span = 1918–19921941–1945: World War II in Yugoslavia#Axis invasion and dismemberment of Yugoslavia, Axis occupation , p1 = Kingdom of SerbiaSerbia , flag_p ...

. The final itself turned on two penalty decisions early in the second half (both of which were denied to the Yugoslavians) and which affected their temperament.

Bernard Joy Bernard Joy (29 October 1911 – 18 July 1984) was an English footballer and journalist. He is notable for being the last amateur player to play for the England national team. Biography Joy was born in Fulham, London and educated at Cardinal ...

, in the 1960 publication "Association Football" (p.470), wrote: "The setbacks rattled the Yugoslavs, their behaviour got out of hand for a spell and they did not recover their rhythm. What made matters worse was when

Gunnar Gren Johan Gunnar Gren (; 31 October 1920 – 10 November 1991) was a Swedish professional association football, football player and coach. He is best remembered for playing for IFK Göteborg and AC Milan. A second striker, creative forward, known f ...

converted a penalty midway through the second half. It is true that

Gunnar Nordahl Nils Gunnar Nordahl (; 19 October 1921 – 15 September 1995) was a Swedish professional footballer. A highly prolific, powerful, and physically strong striker, with an eye for goal, he is best known for his spell at AC Milan from 1949 to 1956, ...

was bowled over, but the offence looked no worse than those committed by the Swedish centre half Bertil Nordahl."

1951 FA Cup Final

By the start of the next season ( 1948–49) Ling had become a

referee, and within three years had been appointed to control an

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 ...

. Ling refereed the

in 1951, in which

Newcastle United Newcastle United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league system, English football. Since th ...

beat

Blackpool Blackpool is a seaside town in Lancashire, England. It is located on the Irish Sea coast of the Fylde peninsula, approximately north of Liverpool and west of Preston, Lancashire, Preston. It is the main settlement in the Borough of Blackpool ...

with two

Jackie Milburn John Edward Thompson "Jackie" Milburn (11 May 1924 – 9 October 1988) was an English football player principally associated with Newcastle United and England, though he also spent four seasons at Linfield. He was also known as Wor Jackie (par ...

goals.

1954 World Cup

The 1954 World Cup was only his second international tournament not having been selected for the 1950

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often called the World Cup, is an international association football competition among the senior List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams of the members of the FIFA, Fédération Internatio ...

. He was one of a group of four referees appointed from the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

for the 1954 tournament. The others were

Benjamin Mervyn Griffiths Benjamin Mervyn "Sandy" Griffiths (17 January 1909 – 21 January 1974) was a Welsh football referee from Abertillery, Monmouthshire. In his professional life he was a teacher. Career He first took up a teaching post in Devon but soon returned t ...

from

Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...

, Arthur Ellis from

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ) is an area of Northern England which was History of Yorkshire, historically a county. Despite no longer being used for administration, Yorkshire retains a strong regional identity. The county was named after its county town, the ...

and Charles Edward Faultless (

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

). In the course of the tournament, Ling had already refereed the Group match between

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 ...

and

West Germany West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...

(in which the Hungarians had won 8–3 against the West German team of mainly reserve players) and had assisted Arthur Ellis during the Battle of Berne quarter-final. In the final he was assisted by Griffiths and the

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

Vincenzo Orlandini Vincenzo Orlandini (30 August 1910 – 23 October 1961) was the first Italian to officiate in a FIFA World Cup final match when he ran the line to William Ling in the 1954 World Cup final between Hungary and West Germany. Orlandini had already ...

.1954 World Cup Statistics
: ''TotalFootball.org'' website.

The Final

Ling's part in the final, between

and

, became controversial because he accepted Griffith's offside flag in the final minutes to deny

Ferenc Puskás Ferenc Puskás (, ; né Purczeld; 1 April 1927 – 17 November 2006) was a Hungarian footballer and manager, widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time and the sport's first international superstar. A forward and an attacking ...

a 3-3 equalizer that could have sent the game into

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 ...

. Willy Meisl observed, later, that it appeared that goal keeper Gyula Grosics had struck Ling following the final whistle. Nothing came of this incident and the mood amongst the Hungarians had settled when the trophy was handed to the West Germans.

The Miracle of Bern

The final became the subject of the 2003

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

film

The Miracle of Bern ''The Miracle of Bern'' () is a 2003 film by Sönke Wortmann, which tells the story of a German family (particularly of a young boy and his depressed ex-POW father) and the unexpected West German ''miracle'' victory in the 1954 World Cup Final ...

, which tells the story of the match. Joachim Floryszak, a non-League

football referee and

civil servant The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil service personnel hired rather than elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leadership. A civil service offic ...

, starred as Ling after contacting the director

Sönke Wortmann Sönke Wortmann (; 25 August 1959 in Marl, North Rhine-Westphalia) is a German film director and producer. Biography Wortmann's father was a miner. After Wortmann's A-Levels he wanted to become a professional football player and started playi ...

begging to be given a place in the film.

References

Print

*"Association Football",

, 1960.

Internet

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ling, William 1908 births 1984 deaths English football referees FA Cup final referees FIFA World Cup finals match officials 1954 FIFA World Cup referees Olympic football referees People from Stapleford, Cambridgeshire