Rudi Glöckner

Who was Rudi Glöckner?

Rudolf "Rudi" Glöckner was the first German to referee a football World Cup final when he took charge of the 1970 FIFA World Cup final between Brazil and Italy in Mexico City.

Glöckner, from what was then East Germany, had a long international career, officiating at the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo and also matches in the 1976 European Championship. He attracted considerable criticism for his part in the games between ADO Den Haag and West Ham United in the 1976 European Cup Winners Cup and Wales and Yugoslavia at Ninian Park, Cardiff in which the Welsh were eliminated in the quarter-final; Glockner had to be escorted from the field of play.

In total he refereed at four Olympic Games and two World Cups.