John Langenus

Stuck in the middle – foreign referees in the League of Ireland

Posted on by gerrytastic

Controversy about refereeing decisions and the appointment of referees is nothing new in football. In the League of Ireland especially perceived biases, supposed club alliances, city of origin, and indeed refereeing ability all play into the arguements fans make about the unsuitability of a referee to take charge of a game. Of course their club of choice is uniquely victimised by Ireland’s officials while their rivals of course recieve favoured status – “sure doesn’t the ref support X team” or “doesn’t his young lad play for their under 15s” etc. etc.

This was a topic hotly discussed in the early days of the League of Ireland, with occassionally dramatic and even violent results and a pattern began whereby officiating Cup Finals and other high profile games became almost the exclusive preserve of referees from outside of Ireland. Bringing in referees (mostly from England) did help with tackling percieved bias that a referee might have held for or against any club and in many cases those taking charge were well known and respected in the game, even including men who had refereed World Cup and European Cup finals.

The first three FAI Cup finals were all refereed by Irish officials but by 1925 things had changed. Jack Howcroft of Bolton was brought in to take charge of the final due to be held on St. Patrick’s Day, 1925 in Dalymount Park. There was initial resistance to this from domestic referees, including the calling of strike action in the run-up to the Cup Final. Howcroft refused to break the strike but a Cup final without a referee was averted after the Evening Herald journalist William Stanbridge, who wrote under the sporting byline of “Nat” arranged a meeting between the disputing parties. Ultimately the referees association capitulated and recognised the FAI’s authority in appointing the referee for any competition and Howcroft was able to take his place as the man in the middle for the final between Shamrock Rovers and Shelbourne.

Howcroft was an experienced referee who had already taken charge of the 1920 FA Cup Final between Aston Villa and Huddersfield Town as well as 18 international matches by the time he made the journey to Dublin. He’d also taken charge of a match between Glentoran and Belfast Celtic some years earlier when he was greeted upon arrival by “a salute of umpteen revolvers” being fired in the air. Despite that experience Howcroft had no qualms about taking charge of the FAI Cup Final.

There was a record final crowd that day in Dalymount as attendance numbers breached 20,000 for the first time, and those present witnessed Shamrock Rovers 2-1 victory over their Ringsend rivals Shelbourne. Howcroft was well received and the crowd were in good spirits , despite, or perhaps because, the Government had just begun the practice of closing the pubs for St. Patrick’s Day. It wasn’t to be Howcroft’s last appearance at an FAI Cup final. Despite the fact that the FA, since 1902 had maintained the practice that a referee was to only be given the honour of refereeing a Cup final once, the FAI took a different approach and were happy to appoint referees to take charge of a final on multiple occasions.

Howcroft would return in 1927, while a year later his place in the middle was taken by Belgian referee John Langenus. Two years after taking charge of that Cup final clash between Bohemians and Drumcondra, Langenus was refereeing the first World Cup Final in Mondevideo. I’ve written about Langenus and his fascinating footballing journey, including his visits to Ireland elsewhere.

Harry Nattrass – image provided by Dr. Alexander Jackson

Non- Irish referees took charge of every subsequent final between 1925 and 1940 apart from the 1937 final which was refereed by John Baylor from Cork. Baylor was chosen ahead of English referee Isaac Caswell but this decision did not prove popular with everyone as finalists St. James’s Gate lodged a formal protest at his selection.

Harry Nattrass, from County Durham took change of the 1940 FAI Cup final between Shamrock Rovers and Sligo Rovers in front of a then record 38,000 supporters, Nattrass had refereed the FA Cup final just four years earlier, however despite his willingness to brave a crossing of the Irish Sea to take charge of the final in Dalymount the remaining finals during the War years would be the domain of Irish referees only. The escalation in the conflict and the danger to shipping from the German Kriegsmarine was obviously a major contributing factor, however, it is worth nothing that even after the War had ended it was 1950 before another non-Irish referee took charge of a Cup Final.

The 1950 final was in itself slightly unusual as it was the first final to go to a second replay. For the first two finals W.H.E. Evans of Liverpool took charge of the first two games between Transport and the favourites Cork Athletic, however he was replaced for the second replay by his fellow countryman Tom Seymour. Transport shocked Irish football by winning their first, and only Cup, and Tom Seymour would return the following year when Cork Athletic once again reach the final and eventually won on the replay 1-0 against Shelbourne.

The 1950s remained a decade when the FAI looked to England to provide referees for prominent games. This wasn’t confined to FAI Cup finals but also happened in semi-finals, prominent League of Ireland games, Shield games, Leinster Senior Cup games and more.

View of Dalymount Park for the 1950 FAI Cup Final (Irish Press)

This was not always popular with all members of the public. In 1932 two English referees, shortly after arriving in Dublin, were “requested” not to officiate two games involving Shelbourne over two consecutive weeks. First, Tom Crew of Leicester was visited ahead of a Shels games against Cork and the following week Tommy Thompson from Lemington was visited before a game against Drumcondra. Both referees did take charge of each of the games although Thompson did alert the Free State League committee. The League condemned these visits to referees and committee member Basil Mainey of Shamrock Rovers stated that the “attempts at intimidation were made by irresponsible persons.” The Gardaí, League and the FAI were reported to be investigating the matter by the Irish Press. Mainey did comment further, making a somewhat awkward justification for the use of English officials while also giving an idea of the rates of pay being offered in the early 1930s. He said;

“No one should get the idea that we employ English referees for the love of them or their country. It costs us four of five guineas every time and a local man would only cost about one guinea.”

The League committee stated at the time that with bigger games in the League of Ireland regularly attracting over 20,000 spectators that it was “desirable” that a “stranger acted as referee”, again returning to the idea that an English referee would be seen as impartial and unbiased. Not that there weren’t moments of friction, three years before those visits were paid to referees Crew and Thompson there was a spat between referee Albert Fogg and Dundalk FC over an article he had written in the English sporting press describing a league match he had refereed between Dundalk and Drumcondra. Fogg had described the Dundalk crowd as the “wild Irish” and a complaint was made by PJ Casey on behalf of Dundalk FC. Incidentally, Irish referee JJ Kelly wrote to the FAI in support of Fogg and complained that the Dundalk supporters were “the mostly cowardly lot of blackguards that ever attended a football game”.

Fogg was well used to taking charge of games in Ireland, he had refereed the 1926 FAI Cup final and was another man afforded the dual honour of taking charge of Cup Finals in both England and Ireland when he refereed the 1935 FA Cup final. As with Fogg, Langenus and Howcroft the majority of referees who came to Ireland were quite high profile, many refereed international matches and important league games and Cup Finals in England, and in the case of Langenus even the World Cup final. Among the other well-known refs who came to Ireland during this period from the 1920s through to the early 1960s were men like Albert Prince-Cox a former football manager, player and referee, boxer, and boxing promoter who had also designed Bristol Rovers distinctive blue and white quartered kit.

Perhaps the most well-known figure in this period would be Arthur Ellis. Ellis was in charge of the 1953 FAI Cup Final and its replay and also the 1955 FAI Cup Final. By that stage he had already been a linesman in the Maracanã for the 1950 World Cup final, and would referee at both the 1954 and 1958 tournaments. A year after refereeing Shamrock Rovers victory over Drumcondra in 1955, Ellis was entrusted with refereeing the first ever European Cup final, a classic game which was won in thrilling fashion 4-3 as Real Madrid defeated French side Stade de Reims. One of Ellis’s assistants in that European Cup final was Thomas H. Cooper who would referee another Shamrock Rovers v Drumcondra final in 1957, this time the Drums prevailed. Ellis himself became better known to a later generation as a media personality, being the referee in the TV gameshow It’s a Knockout.

As you can see from several examples above the FAI did not follow the English tradition of a referee only getting to take charge of a Cup Final once, Howcroft, Seymour, and Ellis all refereed two FAI Cup finals, although the record for a foreign referee is three, which is held by Isaac Caswell from Blackburn. Caswell was a Labour Councillor and was also very involved in organising (and delivering) Church services for sportsmen. He was the man in the middle for the 1932, 1934 and 1936 FAI Cup finals. It could have perhaps even been more were it not for the fact that Argentina were experiencing a similar situation to the League of Ireland and wanted British referees to take charge of league games there while also instructing and education local referees.

Jack Howcroft (right)

Caswell journeyed to Argentina in late 1937 and stayed until 1940, refereeing matches and training local officials. Caswell seems to have been popular in Argentina and like Ireland was seen as an impartial adjudicator although as with games in Ireland there were still moments of conflict. In 1938 there were reports that Caswell had been assualted during one game, although broadly speaking it was seen that his time there was a success. So much so that in the late 1940s there was a request for more British officials to take charge of fixtures in Argentina. Eight men departed for Argentina in 1948 with allowances made for their wives and children to travel with them

This group weren’t always as popular as Caswell had been and similar to the 1925 incident with James Howcroft there was a threatened strike by the Argentine match officials in 1950 while there were still some tumultuous scenes on occasion, with referee John Meade and his officials having to barricade themselves inside a dressing room during a game between Huracán and Velez Sarsfield.

In both Ireland and Argentina the use of referees from outside of their own Associations gradually came to an end. The last Englishman to referee an FAI Cup final was D.A. Corbett who took charge of Shamrock Rovers v Cork Celtic and the subsequent replay in 1964. Since that time the FAI Cup has been the preserve of Irish referees, however for a span of almost forty years British referees (and one Belgian) took charge of 26 FAI Cup finals as well as innumerable semi-finals, finals of other Cup competitions and prominent League and Shield games. Many of these referees had a reasonably high profile, took charge of international matches and tournaments, European club ties and English top flight games and FA Cup Finals, and while not always welcomed they were broadly viewed as neutral parties, freeing games of any sense of bias and bringing their expertise in the laws of the game to bear.

A special thank you to Dr. Alexander Jackson of the National Football Museum in Manchester for his assistance.

The whistle of Langenus

Posted on by gerrytastic

In the summer of 2018 as the elated French champions cavorted and the Croatian players lay prone and disconsolate a group of men in fluorescent light-blue jerseys went to the podium to collect their medals, they were referee Néstor Pitana and his team of officials. This was surely the sporting pinnacle for Pitana, who had celebrated his 43rd birthday just a month before and had begun his career refereeing in the Argentine second tier back in 2006.

But Néstor Pitana is but the latest link in a chain that stretches back almost 90 years to John Langenus, the Belgian official who had refereed the chaotic first World Cup final in 1930, as well as games in the 1934 and ’38 tournaments and the 1928 Olympics. Such was Langenus’s international reputation that he was in high demand for club games outside of his native Belgium, and it is here that the Irish connection appears, because just three months before he refereed in the Amsterdam Olympics of 1928 and two years before the World Cup final, he was in Dalymount Park for the Free State Cup Final between Bohemians and Drumcondra.

Bohs won that Cup final 2-1 in front of a crowd of over 25,000 on St. Patrick’s Day, 1928 to secure a clean sweep of all four domestic competitions that season. Their goals came from Jimmy White and Billy Dennis which cancelled out John Keogh’s opener for Drums. Match reports record that the Bohs were deserved winners with Drumcondra offering little in attack after their opening goal. Of the referee’s role The Irish Times noted that “while feelings ran high at intervals, the referee, Mr. Langenus of Belgium, handled the game splendidly and that nothing unseemly occurred to mar the enjoyment of the huge crowd”.

Langenus was something of a Pierluigi Collina of his day, well-known, popular and well-respected throughout the sporting world as well as being visually arresting, as a tall figure with slicked back hair who took to the field in a shirt, tie, jacket and a pair of plus-fours. It was this reputation that led him to Dalymount Park in 1928. Then as now there were constant debates about the quality of referees and plenty of criticism was aimed at the men in the middle during the early years of the League of Ireland. This meant that for high profile games such as Cup finals the FAI had established the practice of bringing in referees from outside of Ireland.

Usually this meant an English referee, Ireland still looked to England as a bastion of the game and it made sense to use an English speaking referee. For example, in 1927  J.T. Howcroft from Bolton had taken charge of his second FAI Cup Final. A prominent English referee, Howcroft had also officiated the 1920 FA Cup final between Aston Villa and Huddersfield. However, John Langenus had two things in his favour, he was a fluent English-speaker and in addition to his native Flemish he also spoke French, German, Spanish and Italian. The second reason that it should not be such a surprise that he refereed the Cup Final was that a year earlier he had been in Lansdowne Road to referee the Ireland v Italy international which Italy had won 2-1 thanks to two goals from Juventus striker Federico Munerati.

At a banquet following that Ireland match held in the Hibernian Hotel on Dawson Street where John Langenus and his wife were guests, the Honourary Secretary of the Association John S. Murphy toasted Langenus and described him as “one of the best referees they had ever seen in Dublin”. This surely helped with his appointment to the following year’s Cup final.

The paths of the Irish national team and John Langenus would cross on several further occasions, he took charge of Irish matches against Spain, the Netherlands, Hungary, Switzerland and finally against Czechoslovakia in 1938. Langenus himself had many happy memories of his trips to Dublin. He committed some of these to record in one of his memoirs Whistling through the world printed in 1942.

In his book he recalls witnessing the St. Patrick’s day parade on the morning of the FAI Cup Final,  as well as his chats with Lord Mayor of Dublin Alfie Byrne, and his visits to the main tourist attractions; Dublin Zoo, the Botanic Gardens and St. Michan’s Church where he saw the famous preserved bodies in the church crypt. But his main memories are of Irish social culture, and Irish drink! John Langenus took a particular interest in Irish whiskey and would go directly to the distilleries to buy 90 and 100 year old bottles that wouldn’t usually be found on general sale, these he would keep as special gifts for friends (and perhaps a couple for his own collection). He was lucky on one occasion that he managed to bluff his was through English customs checks with two bottles of vintage whiskey in his suitcase.

Similarly he remembered the good humour of the after-match banquets, once again his beloved Irish whiskey makes an appearance though he mentioned that the only way he could tell his Irish hosts were getting a little drunk was that they tended to sing more. In winning or losing he recalls the good mood of his hosts remained the same.

Not all of Langenus’s sporting engagements were to be as enjoyable. His most famous role, that of World Cup Final referee was as far from the relaxed surroundings of a Dublin banquet as was possible. As the great Brian Glanville wrote of Langenus during that final match in Montevideo’s Estadio Centenario “The prospects of dealing with twenty-two players, each of whom was capable of disputing any and every decision, to say nothing of the nearly 100,000 spectators who, once they had paid their money, felt entitled to behave as they pleased, would have daunted men of lesser experience and courage than Langenus”.

Doubtless that Langenus was experienced and courageous but he was also pragmatic, he would no doubt have heard the chants and songs thousands of passionate Argentine fans as they streamed from their ferries across the River Plate and into the stadium hours before kick-off, he would have heard their Uruguayan counterparts fanatically chanting their own calls to arms, including the ominous “Victory or death!”. Who’s death exactly? In such cases often it’s the referee in the firing line and Langenus had sought assurances from the Montevideo police that a swift, armed escort, direct to their ship should be arranged right after the match for him and his team of officials should this be required.

Although the match was intense and undoubtedly passionate Langenus escaped the ire of either set of supporters, in fact he was involved in solving the biggest point of conflict even before kick-off. With both sides insisting that a football manufactured in their own country be used, Solomon-like, Langenus agreed that a ball from Argentina would be used in the first half and a ball from Uruguay in the second.

On that day, as Uruguay celebrated victory in the maiden World Cup, in front of their own home fans, John Langenus must have realised he had reached the apex of his refereeing career. He would return again to officiate in the next two World Cups, signing off his last World Cup match officiating the 3rd place play-off in 1938 which saw Brazil claim bronze, defeating Sweden 4-2.  While he continued to referee international games for another year the outbreak of World War Two effectively ended his career as an international referee though he continued to referee matches in the Belgian League throughout the War until finally the league was suspended for the 1944-45 season. By that stage Langenus was 53 years of age.

According to one source, as a teenager he had played youth football for AS Anversoise but was already a referee in the Belgian top flight since at least 1912, refereeing his first international match in 1923 aged just 31. Throughout his career he was a committed amateur. He worked as a public servant in his home city of Antwerp for his whole working life and was also an occasional sports journalist. While on international duty only his expenses were paid and he refused any fees to referee games though often in such instances medals, cut glass, watches or decorative cups were given as mementos. He also had the perk of  being able to bring back the likes of whiskey from Ireland or cigars from Spain. His positively Corinthian idealism is evident even just by looking at him with august bearing and almost formal attire.

His talent for writing was something that he put to good use in his retirement, writing a memoirs and two other football related books. He passed away in his native Belgium in 1952 aged 60.

With thanks to the people behind @WC1930blogger and @RefereeingBooks for their assistance.