István Zsolt

Istvan Zsolt was one of the most important and appreciated football referees for almost twenty years in the 1950s and19 60s. Zsolt officiated at three FIFA World Cup tournaments. His first was in 1954 where he refereed two matches. He also officiated in two games in 1958 including the semi-final between Sweden and West Germany. The Germans took issue with his refereeing and, before the match, there had been criticism that FIFA had assigned a Hungarian referee for the match because four years earlier, Germany had won the 1954 World Cup final against Hungary. After the Sweden-Germany match, Zsolt did not referee another international match for seven years.

At the 1966 World Cup in England Zsolt had the honour of handling the opening match between England and Uruguay at Wembley Stadium. It was his first match in Europe since he handled the third-place match in the 1968 European Football Championship between England and the Soviet Union at Roma.

At the Olympics, Zsolt had a record of four participations between 1952-68 although he never took charge of a match for a medal position. At club level, he refereed two European finals; the 1965 European Cup Winners’ Cup between West Ham United and TSV Munchen 1860 at Wembley, and the first leg of the Fairs Cup between Barcelona and Real Zaragoza the following year.