George Suppiah
IHFS Excellence Award For Sports Offical
Govindasamy Suppiah or popularly known as George Suppiah is the first Asian referee to represent the Republic in the world’s biggest football show with his sojourn at the World Cup in Germany in 1974. Thus our No.1 referee joined the elite 30 by being the only Asian referee to be selected by FIFA, the controlling body of world soccer, to take charge at the spectacle event.
He was the pride of Singapore when he officiated the match between Poland and Haiti on 19 June 1974. The goal-hungry Poland crushed Haiti by 7-0 in a Group Four match in Munich. This was indeed a gold medal honour for Suppiah because there were hundreds of first class referees throughout the world praying and vying for an opportunity to be part of the elite group of 30.
Before Suppiah, who started his referee’s career in 1953 and became a FIFA referee in 1967, it was John Ferguson who won international recognition in the golden fifties and made the world aware of the quality of Singapore referees.
Born on 17 June 1929 in India, Suppiah moved to Singapore at a young age and grew up in a shophouse at Owen Road. He studied at Raffles Institution and became a school teacher by profession. A gifted athlete, he began playing football with one of the two top clubs in Singapore – the Rovers.
George Suppiah’s introduction to refereeing was an accident. A referee failed to show up for a match one day and Suppiah took over the whistle.
He did a great job and got hooked on refereeing and took up proper courses to expand on his obvious talent. The rest, as the proverbial saying goes, is history.
Of all football souvenirs, Suppiah treasured an old little samba drum. It was a “gift” from an irate Brazilian fan when he officiated as linesman during the semi-final between Brazil and Holland in the 1974 World Cup in Munich. He flagged for an obstruction, and an indirect free kick was given to Holland. A Brazilian fan showed his displeasure by hurling the heavy instrument at Suppiah.
After the match, he picked up the samba drum, waved his “thanks” to the Brazilian crowd and carted it off.
Suppiah, a physical education teacher of Anglo-Chinese Junior College, blew his first official whistle in 1953.
He retired as president of the Football Referees Association of Singapore in 1978 to become the deputy chairman of the Football Association of Singapore’s Referees’ Committee. Suppiah, who had 30 year’s experience, became a FIFA referee in 1967 and had refereed about 42 international matches.
Suppiah called it a day on 13 November 1977. It was a memorable night for him when he officiated the Singapore versus Australia international match that day in front of 40,000 fans to finish off his 25-year career as a soccer referee in style. Australia won 2-0.
After his retirement from refereeing, Suppiah was appointed FIFA’s lecturer in refereeing in 1979.
In Suppiah’s books, morale courage is the most important part of being a good referee. He should be able to make a decision without fear or favour. “A referee has to respect himself before others can respect him.” That’s the golden philosophy of George Suppiah.
He was awarded by FIFA for being a referee instructor for 25 years. In 2009, he was presented with Distinguished Service Award and a Gold Service Award. In September, 2012 he was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award.
Suppiah passed away on 7th December 2012, aged 83, at his residence in Singapore. He leaves behind a daughter, Shamini Suppiah, son Subra Suppiah, two grandchildren and wife Vallambal.