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He Kept Hitting
the Yellow, and Red, and It Gave Him an Idea
The first use of yellow and red cards in soccer matches was in
1966 during the World Cup Final between England and Argentina.
The use of cards came from an idea by English soccer referee Ken
Aston. Here's how Aston tells how yellow and red cards came into
existence:
It followed a particularly difficult game in the 1966 World
Cup Finals between England and Argentina. The referee spoke only
German, and it was quite a rough game.
The following morning the two famous Charlton brothers, Jack
and Bobby, were breakfasting in bed looking at the Sunday
newspapers reporting the game. Suddenly Jack said to Bobby,
"It says I was cautioned yesterday; I didn't know I was
cautioned. "Neither did I," said Bobby.
"It says that you were cautioned, too, Bobby."
"Me? Never!" said Bobby.
So they rang up the tournament manager and he said, "I
didn't know you were cautioned. I'll ring FIFA." I was in
the office at the time. The record keeper, secretary confirmed
that both had been, in fact, cautioned.
I thought little more about it and, having finished my
business in the office, I went and got my little MG sports car
out to go home. Driving up the little side street to the main
drag, the traffic light was green. So I accelerated to get to the
green light, and it suddenly went yellow and went red, and
because of the fact that it was a little side road, I had to wait
a really long time before id did go green again. Got into the
main drag, and immediately there were three sets of traffic
lights about 50 yards apart, all green. Did the same thing,
accelerate. Same thing, yellow, red. Yellow, take it easy. Red,
finished.
I though, well; this is the way to overcome the language
problem in international matches. And so I sat on this until 1970
and launched the yellow and red card system in the World Cup
Finals in Mexico that same year."
Editor's note: Ken Aston also was instrumental in the design
of the black and white uniform. He modified the linesmen's
(assistant referee's) flag for better visibility, instituted a
comprehensive training program to help standardize referee
judgment prior to the 1970 World Cup. Although Aston recently
celebrated his 82nd birthday, he still continues as a soccer
clinician. This bit of soccer history appeared in the November
1996 issue of the NISOA Newsletter.
Published by: http://www.kenaston.org/KenAston/KenAston39.htm
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