World Cup referee and Football Hall of Fame WA inductee Eddie Lennie discusses his time in the middle with Ashley Morrison.
Scotland-born Eddie is the only Australian referee to have officiated at both the Olympic Games (1996) and the World Cup Finals (1998). When a knee injury ended his playing days at 21, Eddie turned his hand to refereeing and got his first taste of international football by running the line for a Poland-Belgium World Cup qualifier in 1985.
Eddie emigrated to Western Australia in 1991 and quickly rose through the refereeing ranks so much so that within two years he was officiating the first of his 193 national league games. He jointly held the record of four national league Grand Finals, was named the Australian Referee of the Year three times and won the WA Referee of the Year on four occasions.
Eddie refereed three games at the 1996 Olympic Games and was the man in the middle of the Italy-Cameroon and Romania-Tunisia matches at the 1998 World Cup. In total he officiated 27 ‘A’ international games and 22 other FIFA recognised internationals. Eddie retired from refereeing in 2004 when, at the age of 45, he could not longer continue at FIFA level.
Eddie was inducted into the Hall of Recognition in 2005.