Hugh Dallas

Hugh Dallas MBE (born 26 October 1957) is a Scottish former football referee.

He refereed his first amateur match in 1982 between Motherwell Bridgeworks and Victoria AFC.

His first foreign engagement came in 1988 when he was a linesman at a Cup Winners' Cup tie between Sampdoria and Carl Zeiss Jena.

While running the line at the 1993 Toulon Tournament, Dallas stopped a match between Czechoslovakia and Portugal after spotting a serious injury to Czech player Martin Svedik.

Dallas was credited with saving the player's life and thanked by Ivan Kopecky, the coach of the Czech team, for his intervention.

Early in his career, Dallas took the advice of Brian McGinlay and began to referee international matches in a different way to those in Scotland.

Dallas contends that foreign players dive more than their Scottish counterparts and that the diving of foreign players who enter Scottish football is reduced by Scottish match officials.

Dallas also officiated at the 1996 Olympic Games, the 1999 UEFA Cup Final and several UEFA Champions League matches.

Dallas was one of 12 referees selected to officiate at the 1996 Summer Olympics in the USA.

During the tournament Dallas was the referee at three group matches.

In June 1997, Dallas refereed an important 1998 FIFA World Cup qualification match between Spain and the Czech Republic.

Early in the second half, Alfonso Pérez fell over in the Czech penalty area at least two metres away from Czech goalkeeper Pavel Srníček, but Dallas awarded a penalty kick to Spain.

He officiated at two FIFA World Cup tournaments, in 1998 and 2002; he was appointed fourth official for the 2002 FIFA World Cup Final.

Their defeat cost the Czech Republic any chance of qualifying for the 1998 FIFA World Cup.

The first match at the 1998 FIFA World Cup for Dallas was a 2–2 draw between Mexico and Belgium.

He sent off Pavel Pardo and Gert Verheyen during the match.

Dallas was also the referee for the quarter-final match between Italy and France.

More than a decade later, Dallas admitted to surprise and disappointment at being overlooked for the later stages of the competition.

In May 1999, Dallas presided over an important Old Firm fixture.

Celtic needed to beat Rangers in this match to prevent them winning the Scottish Premier League championship at Celtic Park.

The match was given a Sunday evening kick-off for reasons of live Sky Sports television coverage.

The match had a frenzied start, with Dallas penalising two fouls within the first minute.

Play was later stopped for several minutes while Dallas received treatment after being hit on the head by a coin thrown by a Celtic supporter.

Over the course of the match at least four Celtic fans invaded the field of play to confront Dallas, while another Celtic fan fell from an upper section of terracing and was taken to hospital.

Rangers won the match 3–0 and therefore the league championship.

Later that evening, a brick was thrown through a window in Dallas' home.

A behavioural psychologist was hired by Celtic to investigate Dallas, with the report largely supported Dallas' performance and instead blamed the behaviour of players.

Since the events of that day, Old Firm league matches have normally been played in the early afternoon and the possibility of an Old Firm title decider has been deliberately avoided.

UEFA offered Dallas police protection after he awarded Italy a late penalty in their 2–1 win over Turkey at Euro 2000.

Dallas' former colleague Brian McGinlay said that the penalty decision was wrong, but nevertheless claimed Dallas was "the best referee in Britain."

Dallas was the fourth official in the semi–final match between France and Portugal.

Dallas was not disappointed to miss the final as he "never imagined that the final was a possibility.' During the routine review of matches, Dallas' performance in the early matches was given the equivalent of a gold star by UEFA committee member Ken Ridden. The committee were also impressed by his man management skills.

Dallas presided over AC Milan's exit from the 2000–01 UEFA Champions League, in a 1–1 draw at the San Siro.

The crowd pelted Dallas with missiles including coins, fruit, bottles and cigarette lighters as he left the field under police protection.

During the 2002 FIFA World Cup tournament, Portugal objected to Dallas' selection for their group-stage game with Poland, referring to their experience with Dallas during UEFA Euro 2000.

In 2003, Dallas rated the mistake as the worst of his career.

Dallas admitted to embarrassment and guilt after the match, as the penalty kick proved decisive in giving a 1–0 win to Spain.

From June 2009 until November 2010, Dallas was the SFA's Referee Development Officer.

He is a UEFA Referee Officer.

Dallas was born in Allanton, near Shotts.