By Gary Lim

FIRST, he broke into a wide smile, one which those in the local football fraternity should be familiar with by now.

With an audible sigh, one hand on knee, he rose from his sofa seat which overlooked the common corridor of his Owen Road flat.

It was clear that George Suppiah had been keenly awaiting our arrival.

'A pleasure to meet you,' said Suppiah as he extended his hand, the same way he once shook hands with greats such as Johan Cruyff and Pele.

The rich, black hair is replaced by a neatly-combed lily-white crop, but the signature warm smile remains.

It has been 35 years since he refereed in the 1974 World Cup Finals in then West Germany.

A month ago, he received the Asian Football Confederation Gold Service Award for his contributions to the sport.

He turned 80 on Wednesday.

'My body is a little bit weaker now, because I haven't been exercising,' added Suppiah as his wife of 52 years, Vallambal, prepared lunch in the kitchen.

'Being a former physical education teacher, I should know better!'

Yet, football continues to capture his imagination as it did during his younger days.

Supported Liverpool

He probably knows his Cristiano Ronaldos and Steven Gerrards as well as any fan on the streets.

There was a time when he supported Liverpool, back during the times when they were winning everything in their path.

These days, he admires Manchester United instead, because he 'just loves teams which play good football'.

'Ronaldo might be a very good player,' he said. 'But you just can't beat George Best.'

And when asked anything related to refereeing, his eyes light up as he replies with greater passion.

The pressure that referees face these days is extremely high because of the astronomical amounts of money involved in the game, Suppiah said.

Then, he added: 'The clubs pay a lot of money to players, unlike the likes of Tom Finney (an England international from 1946 to 1958) who used to earn something like ?10 ($23) a week.

'The pressure to win is huge because a lot of money is at stake, and this pressure trickles down to the referees as well.'

Examples abound of a wrong refereeing call that resulted in the loss of millions of dollars for some clubs.

Most recently, Norwegian referee Tom Henning Ovrebo denied four Chelsea penalty appeals in the second leg of the Champions League semi-finals, which was eventually won by Barcelona on the away-goals rule.

Still, Suppiah believes that the authorities should not resort to the use of video evidence to settle controversial calls on the spot.

He said: 'The game should be left as it - let the referee control the game. 'If the referee is good enough, he will not miss such things.

'All you need is a good referee.'

This article was first published in The New Paper.