Croatian referee Stipe Glavina was convinced that he did not make a mistake until the end of his life. “I am convinced that I have made a good judgment”
Famous Croatian football referee Stipe Glavina he died on Monday, July, at the age of 82. Towards the end of his life, he suffered a stroke, but his memory remained clear, so he happily evoked memories of the details of his great career, which lasted from 1963 to 1988. He retired as a referee with FIFA, and after the secession of Croatia from Yugoslavia was the chairman of the national judicial commission.
Glavina refereed the first league of SFR Yugoslavia from 1976 to 1988 and led matches in which all the Yugoslav aces of that era played. Also, he almost missed refereeing the final of the World Championship for players under the age of 20 in Chile, but the Yugoslav national team “broke his plan” by placing in the final.
“I was supposed to referee that final, but my plans were ruined by Boban, Prosinečki, Štimac, Jarni, they went all the way, so as a referee from the same country I couldn’t referee them,” he told “24 sata”.
A few years later, he refereed the final of the European Championship for under-21 players, and in Europe he also refereed the greats, so he also refereed the UEFA Cup match between Juventus and Shakhtar. “I immediately understood the greatness of Juventus, who for the next 10 years sent me gift packages of sweets, wine, souvenirs, balls…” for every birthday.
When it comes to the domestic league, as a native of Split, he could not judge Hajduk, but that’s why he was the main arbitrator three times at the “eternal derbies” in Belgrade.
“That’s why I refereed Zvezda and Partizan derbies three times in front of 100,000 spectators at the sold-out Maracana in Belgrade”. The journalist’s statement that some perceived him as a referee in favor of Zvezda is followed by a reminder that the red and whites never forgave him the penalty and the 0:3 defeat at Maksimir, which practically settled the fight for the title in 1982, in which Zagreb won under the leadership of Miroslav Ćire Blažević.
“The season before, Dinamo complained about the penalty against Zvezda, Zvezda about the loss in Maksimir… Whoever loses, always gets angry. I am convinced that I judged both one and the other match well. I often talked about it later with Ćiro Blažević, who, like a true gentleman, admitted that I was right,” Glavina said about it.
According to his own admission, he has never refereed a match in which it was known in advance who would win. “As far as I know, I have never refereed an arranged match, and I cannot know if the clubs agreed without me and let the points go.”
“At one time, they regularly sent me to Priština. Zvezda visited, they pulled me out, Partizan visited, me again, Dinamo visited, me again… I refereed the survival match between Trepča and Radnički from Niš in Kosovska Mitrovica, in which the hosts ended up They sent me where no one wanted to referee, and I went myself, once with my colleagues as an international referee I went to referee a match between the great rivals Omiš and Zmaj from Makarska, because others did not dare. And they never attacked me in my career, never I had no problems. I had authority, judged only what I saw, and the players appreciated that. You have nothing to fear if you are ready and fair,” said the late referee Glavina.
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