Ken Dagnall

As a referee he worked his way through the Lancashire Combination to ultimately reach the Football League,[3] initially as a linesman in 1954 and then promoted to the Referees List only one year later.[4] During his time on the Football League List he was based in Bolton in Lancashire,[5] latterly living in the Great Lever area of the town.[2] He reached the international list by 1962. He took charge of two matches in the 1966 World Cup. The first was the 3–1 win by Hungary over Brazil in Group C at Goodison Park, Liverpool, on 15 July 1966.[6] This was followed by the third/fourth place play-off game (or "Bronze Final") at Wembley on 28 July 1966, played between the losing semi-finalists, Portugal and the Soviet Union, and which the Portuguese won 2–1.[7] It has been suggested that he would have instead refereed the World Cup Final of that year if England had been eliminated from the tournament.[2]

Domestically, he was then selected to handle the 1967 FA Cup Final at Wembley on 20 May 1967, when Tottenham Hotspur beat Chelsea by 2 goals to 1.[8] Shortly after his retirement in 1968 he suggested in the Bolton Evening News that a band of around fifteen referees should take charge of the most important matches, allowing them a greater number of games at the top level.[9] This did not occur at the time but a similar system now operates in English professional football.