It is said the best soccer referees are those who get the job done without bringing attention on themselves, but John Carpenter, who died aged 85 on May 30, was the exception to that rule, operating in his flamboyant way while earning the universal admiration of his peers.

Born in Donnycarney, Co Dublin, he was a goalkeeper for Bulfin United and St Patrick’s Athletic, but a leg injury brought an end to his playing career and he took up refereeing.

Being small of stature was a hindrance to his goalkeeping ambitions, but, as a referee, “he was a stand-out”, recalled Paddy Daly, who often shared match-day duties with him at home and abroad. “He was the best we ever had.”

Charlie O’Leary, the 97-year-old doyen of the whistle craft, agrees: “He put Irish referees on the map. UEFA recognised John’s ability long before the FAI did and assigned him to a lot of high-profile matches. John set the standard and did so much for the reputation of Irish referees.”

You couldn’t miss John Carpenter: he was the little man in the black kit and the all-year suntan, who strutted around the pitch like the cock of the walk. Originally a butcher with Olhausen’s in Talbot Street, as was his father, refereeing became his trade as his fame grew. He even had a stint in the US, where Cork’s Alan Kelly is following in his footsteps to great acclaim.

What earned Carpenter the admiration of his peers was his utter professionalism. He was possibly the first to bring two pairs of boots to a game, testing them on the pitch to see which was most suited to the conditions.

He also encouraged the wearing of blazers to games for match officials, inviting respect. Sadly, this led to them being targeted by hooligans and, as a result, top referees like Italy’s Pierluigi Collina preferred the anonymity of a tracksuit when arriving at venues.

In the 1960s and 1970s, Carpenter was part of a group known as the Magnificent Seven — along with Paddy Daly, Dominic Byrne, Paddy Mulhall, Eamonn Farrell, Derry Barrett and Tommy McGovern.

“We did all the top matches,” recalled Daly. “And John thought he should get the biggest games because he was Number One.”

John ‘Pip’ Meighan and Kevin Redmond were in charge of assigning the games and didn’t always agree with John on that score.

They trained four nights a week in Dublin Airport’s ALSAA complex.

“That is where we learned all about the game, with quizzes each week about the previous week’s games,” Daly said. “It was the start of the present system of seminars, but in those days the FAI had no time for referees.”

Carpenter was a good learner and soon came to the attention of UEFA, being entrusted with the first leg of the UEFA Cup final in 1982 in Gothenburg between IFK and Hamburg.

It was the first and, so far, only European club final refereed by an Irishman. He had previously been in charge of a Cup-winners’ Cup semi-final between Barcelona and Beveren in 1979, another first for an Irish referee.

Of course, when you are making hard decisions you are going to ruffle feathers, and he did so in the 1978 FAI Cup final when he awarded Shamrock Rovers a first-half injury time penalty, which yielded a controversial winner against Sligo Rovers.

The controversy was over the amount of injury time, which Carpenter blamed on Shamrock Rovers’ time-wasting.

That same year also saw Carpenter suffer the biggest disappointment of his career when, after being placed on the reserve list for the World Cup in Argentina by UEFA, he missed out when FIFA omitted him.  

Controversy also attached itself to his farewell match, which happened to be the FAI Cup final replay in 1984 between UCD and Shamrock Rovers.

Again the issue was extra time. In those days, two minutes was a normal amount of added time, but UCD’s Ken O’Doherty struck the winner in the fifth minute of injury time, and Carpenter had to be escorted off the pitch because of the irate Rovers’ supporters.

Not that John was one to run scared. After all, when Pele and Santos came to Dublin to play a Home Farm/Drumcondra XI, John refereed the game even though he had a broken arm in plaster. He was never going to miss the chance of sharing a pitch with Pele.

A keen golfer, he had joined Laytown & Bettystown Golf Club in 1983, so the switch to the small ball was a natural for a man who retained the competitive spirit of his playing days. He was a popular member, playing regularly in competitions up to the last two years, when ill-health called a halt.

After his funeral in Donnycarney church on June 3, he was given a guard of honour by his former refereeing colleagues.

Like John’s family, the referees have lost a good friend with his passing.