Nicolae Rainea

Nicolae Rainea

Nicolae Rainea in 1980
Born	(1933-11-19)19 November 1933 Brăila, Romania
Died	Galați, Romania
Other occupation	Technician
Domestic
Years	League	Role
1964–1984	Liga I	Referee
International
Years	League	Role
1967–1989	FIFA-listed	Referee

Nicolae Rainea (19 November 1933 – 1 April 2015), nicknamed The Locomotive of the Carpathians, was a Romanian football referee.

Career

He refereed at three FIFA World Cups (1974, 1978, 1982), the UEFA Euro 1980 Final, the 1983 European Cup Final, the second leg of the 1978 European Super Cup and the second leg of the 1978 UEFA Cup Final.

Rainea is chiefly remembered for his officiating of the Italy v Argentina game at the 1982 World Cup, when he allowed Italy's Claudio Gentile to commit numerous bad fouls on Argentina's Diego Maradona, yet showed Gentile only one yellow card. In a later match between France and Northern Ireland at the same tournament, serving as a linesman, he disallowed a legitimate goal by Northern Ireland's Martin O'Neill when the score was 0-0. France went on to win 4-1.

Honours and legacy

Rainea was decorated by two presidents of Romania, Ion Iliescu and Traian Băsescu. He was made honorary citizen of Galați where he resided and served four local council terms.

Nicolae Rainea Stadium in Galați is named after him.

Personal life and death

In 2011, he celebrated 50 years of marriage. He had a son and a daughter, both living in Sweden.

After an untreated mild cold turned into a pulmonary edema, Rainea suffered a cardiac arrest while in hospital and died on 1 April 2015 in Galați. He was 81 years old.

External links

• (German) Profile

Preceded by Dusan Maksimović	1978 UEFA Cup Final Nicolae Rainea	Succeeded by Ian Foote
Preceded by Károly Palotai	1978 European Super Cup Nicolae Rainea	Succeeded by Adolf Prokop
Preceded by Sergio Gonella	1980 UEFA Euro Final Nicolae Rainea	Succeeded by Vojtech Christov
Preceded by Georges Konrath	1983 European Cup Final Nicolae Rainea	Succeeded by Erik Fredriksson