Nicolas Szego

Hungarian born Nicolas Szego lived in Budapest and Romania as a youngster until he emigrated to Australia in 1964, settling in Queanbeyan. He was a soccer referee for 26 years, gaining world class recognition as the holder of a FIFA Category One international referees certificate, controlling many international matches in Europe and Australia until his retirement in 1974. His football career finished at the age of 19 due to injury. His love for the sport however, saw him dedicate his life to refereeing. In Romania Nick began controlling first class division matches and eventually was given the honour of controlling many international matches. He was unable to referee outside Romania due to communist Government regulations but still controlled a staggering 47 international matches and officiated at a World Youth Tournament. His highest honour came in 1958 when Romania chose him for inclusion on Lexicon containing the names of the top referees of each European country. In Australia, Nick controlled many international and interstate matches, grand finals and cup finals. He refereed a match between the world famous “Dynamo Moscow” team and a Canberra/ Queanbeyan team. Nick was also in control of an international match between Czechoslovakia and Australia in the 1960’s. He has served as an examiner and lecturer, grader and referee, and National League inspector and has remained active in the sport as a columnist, commentator and technical adviser to clubs. Nick was a life member of the ACT division of the Australian Soccer Referees Federation and received the Special Service Award from Soccer Canberra in 1998. Nick was inducted into the Queanbeyan Hall of Fame in 1993.   SOCCER Born: 21 September 1926 Deceased: 2011 Inducted: 1999   Associate Member