Former Irish League referee Leslie Irvine honoured with MBE

Leslie Irvine, awarded an MBE in the New Year Honours

Leslie Irvine receiving a special Merit Award from Lyle Jackson, Chairman of the Northern Ireland Football Writers' Association, in 2004

Former Irish League official Leslie Irvine has been awarded an MBE in the New Year Honours list.

The Limavady man, an International Referee Assessor with the Irish Football Association, receives the honour for services to football.

The 65-year-old is a former FIFA official and he also took charge of four Irish Cup Finals before retiring in 2003.

In 1973 he was involved in a car accident and sustained leg injuries which ruled out any hope of a playing career in rugby.

He attended Portora School in Enniskillen and responded to an advertisement inviting applications for a course in refereeing at the YMCA under the auspices of the Fermanagh and Western Referees Association.

In 1979 while he was attending college in Belfast he got his big break as a substitute for Derek Beresford who had to pull out of an Irish Junior Cup tie between Milford Everton and Dromore Amateurs. Later the same year he refereed the Irish Junior Cup Final. He became a senior linesman in 1981 and two years later took charge of his first Irish League match between Ballymena United and Distillery at The Showgrounds. By 1985 he was a senior referee.

One of his favourite memories was taking part in the final of the FIFA World Youth Championships in the Stadium of Light in Lisbon when host nation Portugal took on the youngsters of Brazil in front of a record 127,000 fans. Appropriately, the former school teacher’s final game as referee was a Big Two Boxing Day clash at the Oval.

Oscars star James Martin, a passionate supporter of Irish League football, also picks up an