Keith Hackett

Keith Hackett was one of the best English referees in the 1970s and 80s. He took up refereeing in 1960 at the age of 16 when the local club he played for encouraged him to attend a referee’s course. He duly passed his first examination and progressed from Class Three to Class One referee within three years, as he moved from officiating in local amateur matches to the semi-professional Northern Premier League. In 1972, just 12 years after starting his refereeing career, he was promoted to the Football League list.

The first of many highlights in Hackett’s long career came in 1979 when he was a linesman in the classic Arsenal versus Manchester United FA Cup final. Two years later he had the honour of refereeing the 100th final, between Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester City, and, at 36, was one of the youngest ever men to referee an FA Cup final. That same year, 1981, Hackett was promoted to the FIFA International list and was also invited to be a referee in the North American Soccer League (NASL).

Hackett refereed in over 50 countries and in all the major international club and national competitions, including the Football League Cup final, the UEFA Champions League, UEFA European Championships, FIFA World Cup qualifiers, and the Germany versus Brazil semi-final at the 1988 Seoul Olympics, which Brazil won on penalties.

Hackett was scheduled to retire at the end of the 1991/92 season but was granted a year’s extension to become one of the officials in the new Premier League. He was then given a further year’s extension before his eventual retirement shortly before his 50th birthday in 1994.

After retiring, Hackett worked as a referee’s assessor and in 2004 was appointed the general manager of the Professional Game Match Officials Board. He also wrote two books, “Hackett’s Law” and co-wrote the strip cartoon feature “You Are the Ref” for the Guardian newspaper with Paul Trevillion. It was later published as a book.