Former top ref’ Hackett agrees Whites ‘robbed’

REGARDED AS England’s best referee at his peak, Sheffield’s Keith Hackett points to the linesman in the 1975 European Cup final as proof Leeds United were robbed.

Michel Kitabdjian’s performance in Bayern Munich’s 2-0 win was widely condemned after he waved away two penalty appeals, most notably for Franz Beckenbauer’s tackle on Allan Clarke, and disallowed a Peter Lorimer volley at 0-0.

Forty-five years on, Leeds are still aggrieved. With good reason, according to Hackett.

“There’s no doubt in my mind that Leeds were robbed,” said the main who after retiring managed England’s top officials.

“The penalty was nailed on and, although (Billy) Bremner was given offside under the law interpretation of the day, he actually wasn’t. He was close to it but not quite.

“The tell-tale sign that the officials were swayed by protest (after Lorimer’s volley) is that the linesman had actually run back to halfway before he was consulted. He could have flagged but he didn’t do so.”

Two years earlier the Whites were on the wrong end of another dubious refereeing performance.

Kitabdjian, who died in March, was France’s longestserving international referee, officiating for 19 years, and went to his third European Championships in 1976.

But the 1973 European Cup Winners’ Cup final between AC Milan and Leeds ended Christos Michas’s career refereeing international club football.

He was suspended after an investigation following bribery allegations, although UEFA refused Leeds’s request for a replay.

“With refereeing decisions, you wonder what goes on sometimes,” said the late Trevor Cherry, left-back in Thessaloniki but an unused substitute in Paris. “It was a shame we couldn’t get in the (European Cup) final by winning the league say two years before as the team then (in 1974-75) was coming towards the end and not at its peak.”