Leo Callaghan was an association football referee in the English Football League

The Football League

The Football League, also known as the npower Football League for sponsorship reasons, is a league competition featuring professional association football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888, it is the oldest such competition in world football...

. He was also a Welsh

Wales

Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...

 FIFA

FIFA

The Fédération Internationale de Football Association , commonly known by the acronym FIFA , is the international governing body of :association football, futsal and beach football. Its headquarters are located in Zurich, Switzerland, and its president is Sepp Blatter, who is in his fourth...

 referee.

Career

Callaghan made the Football League referees list in 1954 at the age of thirty, and went on to have a seventeen year career at this level. His greatest domestic honour came when he took charge of the 1968 FA Cup Final between West Bromwich Albion

West Bromwich Albion F.C.

West Bromwich Albion Football Club, also known as West Brom, The Baggies, The Throstles, Albion or WBA, are an English Premier League association football club based in West Bromwich in the West Midlands...

 and Everton

Everton F.C.

Everton Football Club are an English professional association football club from the city of Liverpool. The club competes in the Premier League, the highest level of English football...

 at Wembley. He is one of only three Welshmen to referee the Final

FA Cup Final

The FA Cup Final, commonly referred to in England as just the Cup Final, is the last match in the Football Association Challenge Cup. With an official attendance of 89,826 at the 2007 FA Cup Final, it is the fourth best attended domestic club championship event in the world and the second most...

 (the others being Mervyn Griffiths and Clive Thomas

Clive Thomas

Clive Thomas is a Welsh former football referee, who operated in the English Football League and for FIFA during his career. He came from Treorchy in the Rhondda Valley.-Career:...

).

He was also an international referee. This included two Group matches as linesman and one Group C match as referee (between Portugal

Portugal national football team

The Portugal national football team represents Portugal in association football and is controlled by the Portuguese Football Federation, the governing body for football in Portugal. Portugal's home ground is Estádio Nacional in Oeiras, and their head coach is Paulo Bento...

 and Hungary

Hungary national football team

The Hungary national football team represents Hungary in international football and is controlled by the Hungarian Football Federation....

) at the 1966 World Cup Finals

1966 FIFA World Cup

The 1966 FIFA World Cup, the eighth staging of the World Cup, was held in England from 11 July to 30 July. England beat West Germany 4–2 in the final, winning the World Cup for the first time, so becoming the first host to win the tournament since Italy in 1934.-Host selection:England was chosen as...

 in England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, as well as six matches in eleven years involving England

England national football team

The England national football team represents England in association football and is controlled by the Football Association, the governing body for football in England. England is the joint oldest national football team in the world, alongside Scotland, whom they played in the world's first...

 in Home Internationals, and in European competitions, such as the 1968 UEFA European Football Championship qualifying

1968 UEFA European Football Championship qualifying

The qualifying round for the 1968 European Football Championship consisted of 31 teams divided into eight groups; seven of four teams and one of three teams. Each group winner progressed to the quarter-finals. The quarter-finals were played in two legs on a home-and-away basis...

 rounds. On June 11, 1967 he took charge of Sweden

Sweden national football team

The Swedish national football team represents Sweden in association football and is controlled by the Swedish Football Association, the governing body for Football in Sweden. Sweden's home ground is Råsunda Stadium in Stockholms län and their head coach is Erik Hamrén. Sweden made their first...

 versus Bulgaria

Bulgaria national football team

The FIFA Bulgaria national football team is an association football team fielded by the Bulgarian Football Union, a member association of UEFA. The team's home ground is Vasil Levski in Sofia and Luboslav Penev is in charge manager after replacement of Lothar Matthäus...

 in the Råsunda Stadium

Råsunda Stadium

Råsunda Fotbollstadion, also Råsundastadion, Råsunda Stadium or just Råsunda, is a Swedish national football stadium. It is located in Solna Municipality in Metropolitan Stockholm and named after Råsunda, a zone of Solna.-History:...

, Solna

Solna Municipality

Solna Municipality is a municipality in Stockholm County in east central Sweden, located just north of the capital Stockholm. Its seat is located in the 'city' of Solna....

, in that competition. As regards club competitions, Callaghan was in charge of, for example, Atlético Madrid against FK Vojvodina

FK Vojvodina

FK Vojvodina is a football club from Novi Sad, Serbia. The club currently competes in the Serbian SuperLiga. FK Vojvodina is the third oldest football club in Serbia's SuperLiga, after OFK Beograd which was founded in 1911 and FK Javor which was founded in 1912.-History:FK Vojvodina was founded...

 in their second round second leg tie in the European Cup

European Cup 1966-67

The 1966–67 season of the European Cup football club tournament was won by Celtic for the first time in the final against Internazionale, who eliminated defending champions Real Madrid in the quarter-finals...

 on December 14, 1966 at the Estadio del Manzanares, when the two-leg scores tied at 3–3, and the result had to be decided by a tie-break

Tiebreaker

In games and sports, a tiebreaker or tiebreak is used to determine a winner from among players or teams that are tied at the end of a contest, or a set of contests.-In matches:In some situations, the tiebreaker may consist of another round of play...

 match a week later.

An extraordinary event occurred on November 12, 1970. Whilst refereeing a Football League Second Division

Football League Second Division

From 1892 until 1992, the Football League Second Division was the second highest division overall in English football.This ended with the creation of the FA Premier League, prior to the start of the 1992–93 season, which caused an administrative split between The Football League and the teams...

 match between Millwall

Millwall F.C.

Millwall Football Club is an English professional football club based in South Bermondsey, south east London, that plays in the Football League Championship, the second tier of English football. Founded as Millwall Rovers in 1885, the club has retained its name despite having last played in the...

 and Sheffield United

Sheffield United F.C.

Sheffield United Football Club is a professional English football club based in the city of Sheffield, South Yorkshire.They were the first sporting team to use the name 'United' and are nicknamed 'The Blades', thanks to Sheffield's worldwide reputation for steel production...

, the city of London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 was engulfed by "[t]orrential rain", causing the "abandonment of [the] game after 25 minutes by ... Callaghan ...".

He retired from the League list in 1971. He later became a Football League assessor.

Print

• Football League Handbooks, 1954–1970
• Rothmans Football Yearbooks, 1970–1971.
• Freddi, Cris (1998) The Complete History Of the World Cup, Collins Willow.
• Ionescu, Romeo (2003) The Complete Results & Line-Ups of the European Fairs Cup 1955–1971, Soccer Books Limited.
• Ionescu, Romeo (2003) The Complete Results & Line-Ups of the European Football Championships 1958–2003, Soccer Books Limited.
• Ionescu, Romeo (2004) The Complete Results & Line-Ups of the European Champions Clubs’ Cup 1955–1991, Soccer Books Limited.
• Ionescu, Romeo (2004) The Complete Results & Line-Ups of the European Cup Winners Cup 1960–1999, Soccer Books Limited.
• Ionescu, Romeo (2004) The Complete Results & Line-Ups of the UEFA Cup 1971–1991, Soccer Books Limited.
• Elleray, David (2004) The Man In the Middle, Time Warner, p49-50 (reference to role as an assessor)

Internet