31 Facts About Hugh Dallas

Hugh Dallas MBE was born on 26 October 1957 and is a Scottish former football referee.

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

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

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

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

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

Hugh 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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Hugh Dallas sent off Pavel Pardo and Gert Verheyen during the match.

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

Hugh Dallas was selected as fourth official for the Final between Brazil and Germany.

Hugh Dallas then acted as a referee observer for the Scottish Premier League and was appointed to the UEFA Referees' Committee.

Hugh Dallas was appointed to a new Referee Certification Panel, one of two panels introduced in connection with UEFA's Referee Convention, while he continued his role as a UEFA referee observer.

Hugh Dallas was appointed Head of Referee Development by the Scottish Football Association in 2009.

Hugh Dallas was involved in a public dispute with Motherwell manager Jim Gannon over refereeing decisions.

In February 2010, Hugh Dallas expressed disappointment at refereeing standards in the SPL, after several high-profile refereeing errors were made in a short period of time.

In November 2010, assistant referee Steven Craven accused Hugh Dallas of exerting pressure on him to support referee Dougie McDonald, who had lied about a disallowed penalty incident in a match at Tannadice Park.

Hugh Dallas was supported personally by the SFA, though the body promised an overhaul of referee discipline.

Later in November 2010, Hugh Dallas faced an inquiry after it emerged that he had allegedly sent what has been described as a sectarian and offensive email referring to the Pope from his SFA email account.

Hugh Dallas planned to sue the SFA for unfair dismissal, but the case was settled before it reached court.

Hugh Dallas was the managing director of his own window and construction company, until it went into receivership in 2002.

Hugh Dallas was appointed Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire in the 2003 New Year Honours for services to football.

Hugh Dallas replaced Pierluigi Collina at Soccer Aid 2008, after Collina was injured.

Scottish band Mogwai named a song after Hugh Dallas which was included in the 2014 re-release of Come On Die Young.