Rudi Glöckner

Rudolf Glöckner (20 March 1929 – 25 January 1999) was an East German football referee. Nicknamed "De Glocke" , he was the referee of the 1970 FIFA World Cup final between Brazil and Italy in Mexico City, becoming the first German referee to officiate a FIFA World Cup final.

Refereeing career In 1952, while still a player at Sportfreunde Markranstädt, Glöckner took an interest in becoming a referee.

In 1964, Glöckner was selected as a referee for the football tournament at the 1964 Summer Olympics in Japan. There, he was chosen to officiate three matches, each of them involving the United Arab Republic, including their Group C matches against Brazil and South Korea, and quarter-final match against Ghana. He returned to the Summer Olympics as a referee in 1972, where he officiated the match between Morocco and the United States in West Germany. becoming the first Dutch international to ever receive a red card. Cruyff was later banned from international football for a year by the KNVB. He was also chosen to officiate the second legs of the 1973 European Super Cup between Ajax and AC Milan and the 1976 UEFA Cup final between Club Brugge and Liverpool.

A few weeks after the Wales-Yugoslavia match, Glöckner officiated a match during the final matchday of the 1975–76 Czechoslovak First League between Slovan Bratislava and Slavia Prague, which Slovan Bratislava won 2–0.

Overall, Glöckner officiated 107 international matches, including 24 senior international matches.

1970 FIFA World Cup final Glöckner, along with assistant referees Rudolf Scheurer and Ángel Coerezza, lined up with the Brazil and Italy teams prior to the final. Glöckner was chosen as the referee for the 1970 FIFA World Cup final following a dispute between the Brazilian and Italian federations, with the Brazilians rejecting having one of the well-known European referees officiating, while the Italians did not want a South American referee. Glöckner, who at the time was still relatively unknown, was chosen for the final, with Rudolf Scheurer and Ángel Coerezza as his assistants.

At the time, Glöckner had only officiated four international matches as a referee, with the final set to be his fifth. To distract himself from the excitement of officiating a FIFA World Cup final, he played skat with East German national team manager Georg Buschner and sports journalist , who were both part of the small East German delegation for the tournament.