OLYMPIC FOOTBALL: WILLIAM LING Part 1

The 1948 Olympic Games was held in London, the first major World sporting event held in Britain following the Second World War. The official opening took place at Wembley on July 29th, but the competition had begun on the 26th, with the kick off of two Preliminary Round ties. Luxembourg beat Afghanistan 6-0 at the Goldstone Ground (Brighton's ground until the Amex was built) with a crowd of 6,000. The other Prelim involved Ireland, who lost 3-1 to The Netherlands at Fratton Park, Portsmouth in front of 3,000.

Great Britain beat The Netherlands 4-3 aet in a First Round tie at Highbury, then beat France 1-0 in Quarters, and lost to Yugoslavia 1-3 in the semi-final. GB went on to the Bronze medal match where they lost to Denmark 5-3, in front of a Wembley crowd of 50,000. The GB goalkeeper was Scot, Ronnie Simpson, who 19 years later was in Celtic's "Lisbon Lions" team that beat Iner-Milan, to become the first British club to win the European Cup (Champions' League Final as it is now known).

The biggest crowd was 60,000 at Wembley which saw Sweden defeat Yugoslavia 3-1 to win Gold.  

Bernard Joy, the sports' journalist, wrote at the time: William Ling rose quickly through the ranks as a referee. He was initially on the supplementary list as a Football League match official but even so, was selected to participate in the 1948 Olympics' football tournament. Ling refereed both the first round match involving Sweden v Austria (3-1), the quarter-final involving Italy (Denmark won 5-3) and was then selected for the Final between Sweden and Yugoslavia. The final itself turned on two penalty decisions early in the second half (both which were denied to the Yugoslavians) and which affected their temperament. 

Joy wrote: "The setbacks rattled the Yugoslavs, their behaviour got out of hand for a spell and they did not recover their rhythm. What made matters worse was when Gunnar Gren converted a penalty midway through the second half. It is true that Gunnar Nordahl was bowled over, but the offence looked no worse than those committed by the Swedish centre half Bertil Nordahl". 

Here is the ball used in the Olympic Final match at Wembley between Sweden and Yugoslavia, won by the Swedes 3-1.