Neil Midgley (referee)

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Neil Midgley
Full name Neil Midgley
Born 9 September 1942
Salford, Lancashire, England
Died 8 July 2001(2001-07-08) (aged 58)
Kearsley, Bolton, England
Domestic
Years League Role
1977–1992
Football League
Referee
International
Years League Role
1982–1991 FIFA listed Referee

Neil Midgley (9 September 1942[1] – 8 July 2001[2]) was an English football referee from Salford.[2]

Career

Midgley joined the

Milk Cup Final between Norwich City and Sunderland with the Norfolk team winning via a Gordon Chisholm
own goal.

At the start of the 1986–87 season, he was awarded control of the 1986 FA Charity Shield match[2] between Everton and Liverpool at Wembley, which finished 1–1, the trophy being shared.

On 16 May 1987, he stepped out once more at Wembley to take charge of the

FA Cup Final between Coventry City and Tottenham Hotspur, which finished 3–2 to the 'Sky Blues'.[4]

Midgley reached the standard retirement age in 1991 but was granted a one-year extension due to his strong performances. It was on 17 February in this year that he controversially did not award Everton a penalty at Anfield against Liverpool in the FA Cup when Pat Nevin was brought down in the Liverpool penalty area. The Co-commentator for BBC coverage on that day was Trevor Brooking who remarked that "you will never see a more clear cut penalty in my opinion". Midgley was in charge of a 1992 FA Cup semi-final between Sunderland and Norwich before retiring at the end of the season. He then became a referees' assessor for the newly formulated Premier League competition, and for UEFA. However, in 1999, he was replaced as a Premiership assessor by Martin Bodenham, although still retained in that capacity by the European governing body.[5] He had also been a past president of the Football League Referees and Linesmen's Association, and was an active member of the Eccles Referees' Association.[2] He became the ERA chairman early in his career, and served as their president from 1983 to 1989 and from 1992 until his death.[3]

Death

Neil Midgley died at the Little Hulton Hospice in Salford, a few months after being diagnosed with cancer. He was 58.[2] In his honour, The Eccles Referees' Association changed the name of its award for the senior level Referee of the Year from the President's Cup to the Neil Midgley Memorial Trophy. Barbara Midgley presents the trophy to the winner each year.[3]

Print references

  • Football League Handbooks, 1974–1992 – confirmation of dates of joining lists of referees and linesmen

Internet

  1. ^ Birthdate confirmation: zerozero.eu website.
  2. ^ a b c d e Date of death[permanent dead link] calculated from article, plus other biography: ThisIsLancashire.co.uk
  3. ^ a b c More information Archived 15 October 2006 at the Wayback Machine: from the Eccles Referees' Association website.
  4. ^ FA Cup Final 1987 Archived 9 May 2008 at the Wayback Machine: FA-CupFinals.co.uk website.
  5. ^ Extra information on Midgley Archived 22 October 2008 at the Wayback Machine: The Guardian/Observer website.

External links

Preceded by
Alan Robinson
1987
Succeeded by