John Paterson

John Paterson took up refereeing in 1953 and in August 1961 became a Class One referee. He was appointed to the list of FIFA officials three years later, and the first full international he refereed was a friendly between Netherlands and Belgium in 1969. He never refereed at the FIFA World Cup finals, but took charge of the qualifier between Ireland and Denmark in 1969.

Paterson officiated at many top games in the leading European club tournaments, but never refereed a final. He was, however, in the middle for the first leg of the Cup-winners’ Cup semi-final between AC Milan and Sparta Praha at the San Siro Stadium in 1973. The following year he refereed the second leg of the UEFA Cup semi-final between VfB Stuttgart and Feyenoord. At the 1976 Olympics, Paterson refereed two matches, including the Brazil versus Poland semi-final that was won 2-0 by the Europeans.