Rudolf Kreitlein

Kreitlein began his refereeing career at the age of 17, and soon moved to the US to train referees. He subsequently returned to Germany, where he tried to become a professional footballer. However, a serious knee injury ended this aspiration, and he concentrated on refereeing instead. Kreitlein's rise to prominence within the European game was evident prior to the World Cup. He had been appointed as one of the German representatives for the 1963 UEFA European Under-18 Championship in England, refereeing the final between England and Northern Ireland at Wembley (his assistants were the Hungarian orchestral conductor and referee István Zsolt and the Belgian Mark Raemaekers). Kreitlein had been a Bundesliga referee from its inauguration in 1963 but had only refereed 36 matches at national level before being appointed referee (in May 1966) to the European Cup final, where he took charge of the game between Real Madrid and Partizan Belgrade in Brussels.

Kreitlein worked as a tailor. He was married, but had no children. His wife died in 2008.