José María Ortiz de Mendíbil

José María Ortiz de Mendíbil Monasterio (11 August 1926 – 15 September 2015), also known as José María Ortiz, was a Spanish referee, active from 1953 to 1973. He was the referee of the replay of the UEFA Euro 1968 final.

José María Ortiz (center) with Linesmen in 1968

In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is Ortiz and the second or maternal family name is de Mendíbil Monasterio.

Life and career

Mendíbil was born in Portugalete, Basque Country, Spain.

During his 18 seasons in La Liga, between 1953 and 54 and 1972 and 73, he led 241 league games. He was promoted to international status the seasons 1958 and 1959, and was in it until the end of his career. He refereed 33 international matches, among others 1969 European Cup final between AC Milan and Ajax, two World cup matches in 1970: West Germany-Bulgaria and the semi-final between Brazil and Uruguay. He was the referee also of two European Cup Semifinals in 1965 and in 1971 and three UEFA Cup Winners' Cup Semifinals in 1966, 1968 and 1970.

The match when Inter Milan beat Liverpool 3-0 in the 1965 European Cup semi-final second leg, which later subsequently let to claims by English press that he had accepted bribes to facilitate an Inter Milan victory,^[1] in particular for giving a direct free kick then scored by Mario Corso and for an hypothetical foul of Peirò on goalkeeper Tommy Lawrence on the second goal.

On 24 May 1972, he took charge of the European Cup Winners' Cup final played at the Camp Nou in Barcelona. The match between Rangers of Scotland and Russia's Dynamo Moscow served up a five goal thriller, with Rangers running out 3–2 victors in the end.

In his retirement, he was a partner in UEFA and pioneer in Spain with the programs of TVE, where he worked for 5 years, apart from collaborating in programs Cadena SER and Tele Bilbao. He died in Algorta, Spain in September 2015.^[2]