GAME OF CARDS

Ken Aston was a well thought of English referee who had the misfortune to adjudicate the "Battle of Santiago" in 1962 when Chile and Italy came to blows in a World Cup tie. Ken retired in 1963 having done an FA Cup Final and then was asked by FIFA to be in charge of the World Cup 1966 refereeing. It was not long before he had to witness the England-Argentina quarter-final tie when Antonio Rattin was sent off for "violence of the tongue" amongst other things. The German referee at Wembley that afternoon spoke no Argentinian (Spanish) and of course Rattin had no German. Aston had to come down from the stands, where he was sitting with other officials, to encourage Rattin off the field before a major incident occurred. (see below)

Bobby and Jack Charlton found out the next day that they too had been in the ref's bad books and had apparently been cautioned. They did not know this at the time. Aston reckoned it was time for better forms of communication on the field.

When Aston was driving home one day he was stopped by a "red traffic light" and of course it had gone through the "amber" phase. He thought it a good idea to visualise punishments but it took several years for the use of cards to be accepted. Aston introduced the Red and Yellow cards at the 1970 World Cup in Mexico.  USSR Evegeny Lovchev was the first player to receive a yellow when he was cautioned on May 31st, during the opening match. It worked there were no sendings off at all during the tournament.