--- In soccerdatauk@yahoogroups.com, "scottishfootballstatistics"
<scottishfootballstatistics@...> wrote:
>
> During recent research I came across a few matches in Scotland
which
> had an English referee in charge. All of the games seem to involve
> Celtic. An example of this would be the 1906/07 Glasgow Cup Final
in
> which John Lewis of Blackburn was referee of Celtic v Third
Lanark. I
> haven't as yet uncovered a reason for these referee appointments.
Can
> anyone shed any light on the subject?
>

An obvious answer might be neutrality although a Celtic v Third
Lanark Cup Final does not, to a mere Sassenach, seem to carry the
same overtones as Celtic v Rangers. And this was before the infamous
1909 C v R Final when the cup was withheld because of a riot.

In this case, it may have something to do with the status of John
Lewis himself. He was a ref from the first season of the Football
league (1888) and was one of the most famous, if not the most
famous, of his day - known as 'Honest John', from memory. He reffed
3 English Cup Finals of the 1890s and many internationals too. Not
only that, he was on the management committee of the FL from 1894
and vice-president 1901-1926. He was not the only committee man to
ref in those early days - JJ Bentley (FL President 1894-1910 and
owner/editor of the Athletic News) and CE Sutcliffe (1898-1939) come
to mind.

What appears odd is that he ceased as an FL ref in 1904 but it was
not unusual for people like Lewis and Sutcliffe to continue to ref
internationals, no doubt other games too, which, it would seem,
embraced other prestige games like a Scottish Cup Final. Nice little
earner one might say but they were men of mighty influence in
British soccer too and to have Lewis as the ref might be seen by the
SFA as adding lustre and prestige to their own competition. It would
be interesting to know some of the other English names you have to
see if my theory holds water.

Reminds me that the ref of the 1950 World Cup Final in Brazil was
the ex-FL referee G Reader of Southampton. He had come off the FL's
list after the 1946-7 season but continued to ref internationals.
English refs were still held in very high esteem those days (reffed
1954 WCF too) as emerging national FAs started to get on their feet
and develop their own refs of integrity, learning from the British
along the way. Before WW2, ref Howcroft was seconded to the
Argentinian FA to help develop a referees cadre. A good read about
refs is 'The Man in Black' by Gordon Thomson. See also Simon Inglis'
Centenary History of the FL, 'League Football and the men who made
it'.

One final strangeness, for a couple of seasons or so from 1888,
there were a couple of Scottish residents on the FL's lists which
suggests that deep lines in the sand had yet to be drawn. Quite how
it worked in practice is unknown. Even WG Grace is on one FL list
but no FL game has ever been found that he actually reffed although
he was active in that capacity in his native area around Bristol.
Makes you think that all you needed was your own whistle and you
were a referee - well an umpire in the earliest days but that's
another story! Modesty prevents me mentioning my book on refs - see
SoccerData's catalogue.

Hope this ramble helps!

Gil Upton