Romualdo Arppi Filho, former Brazilian referee famous for refereeing the 1986 FIFA World Cup final in Mexico when Argentina beat Germany 3-2, died this Sunday in city of Santos, in the Sao Paulo state. The ex-referee suffered from kidney disease. He was 84 years old. The GloboNews network reported that one of the three sons of the former referee, Ricardo de Oliveira Arppi, was the one who confirmed the death of his father, who was hospitalized at the Ana Costa Hospital. "My father will always be a reference both in sports and in humanity, he was an incredible human being," his son told the news channel.
Arppi’s place in football history is linked to Diego Maradona and Argentina, because he was the referee of the 1986 World Cup final, when Argentina lifted the World Cup after beating the tough team of Germany 3-2. "$150 a day." Just a per diem. That is what he recalled in an interview as having received during his stay in Mexico. It was, after all, 40 long days until the final duel between the Argentines and Germans. After Maradona's death on 25 November 2020, the former referee had expressed his sadness, although, in that final, the Brazilian cautioned him. Despite the time that has passed, Romualdo kept certain memories intact until the end. “At minute 17, there was a foul committed by defender Brown to the left of the penalty area. Germany took the free kick, but Maradona came out of the wall, I whistled right away and awarded him a yellow card. Luckily the ball didn't go in or anything”, he recalled recently in an interview. "With Diego I never had a problem in that final. He obviously asked me for the time when the game was ending, while the Germans came and asked me to continue for more minutes, not to finish it. On the contrary, Maradona was always the one who had problems because of the violence they used against him, because they fouled him a lot," he said on that occasion.
Arppi Filho started his career when he was just 14 years old and at 20 he was already refereeing professionally, reaching its peak in the 80s and continuing until 1990. He refereed the second game of the 1973 Copa Libertadores final, the re-match in Chile between Colo Colo and Independiente, and cancelled a valid goal by Carlos Caszely that would have put the trans-Andean team ahead. The match ended 0-0, there was a third duel in Montevideo and those from Avellaneda kept the title. Until today they point the finger at him as a "thief", despite the fact that Colo Colo players admitted that they asked their president to bribe Filho. He was also present in Tokyo, at the 1984 Intercontinental Cup when Independiente beat Liverpool 1-0 with a goal from Percudani. But he was also linked to a positive memory when he delivered justice in the final of the Inter-American Super Cup that Racing beat Herediano of Costa Rica, a title for which the Argentine club still demands Conmebol to be counted as official.
Arppi Filho attended three Olympic Games in Mexico (1968), Moscow (1980) and Los Angeles (1984). He refereed the 1987 Copa America final and was the second Brazilian referee to referee a World Cup final after Arnaldo Cezar Coelho, who led the decisive match between Italy and Germany in the 1982 World Cup, which Italy won 3-1. Arppi and his children had a very good relationship with the Argentine community that lives in Santos and in the state of Sao Paulo, to the point that they organized amateur competitions followed by Brazilian barbecue.
Before the 2022 World Cup final between Argentina and France, Arppi responded to a question from the Telam agency that he "had not decided to support any team, maintaining the way of thinking inherited from his profession as a referee.” For Arppi, his career as a referee had been a kind of blessing, as he managed almost all of Pele's career at Santos and Maradona in the 1986 Mexico final. "For me, the two players must divide the throne of the greatest", he used to say. In 2019, Pele himself greeted Arppi publicly for his birthday. “A lot of people thought he was mad at them, but he was one of the best referees I have ever seen. We argued because he was very energetic, but the truth is that he also protected me by being rigid and thanks to him they didn't kick me so many times”, acknowledged Pele. After hanging up his whistle, Arppi Filho worked in the real estate business. He leaves behind three children and three grandchildren.
Source: Clarin