A football referee and “true gentleman” who dedicated more than 50 years of his life to the beautiful game has died aged 80.
Aware he was “never going to make the grade” as a player, Robbie Harrold turned to officiating in the late 1960s as a way to take part in the sport he loved.
Starting out refereeing the North Region Juniors league, he rose up the ranks to oversee matches at all levels of football – including tense cup finals and a World Cup qualifier in Romania.
He gave up officiating in 1979, following the Scottish League Cup final between Aberdeen and Dundee United, and moved into watching the watchers.
For the remainder of his sporting career he served as a referee supervisor in the three north footballing regions, moving from Elgin to Bridge of Don in Aberdeen in the process.
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His dedication did not go unnoticed and in 2010 the Scottish Football Association named him an honorary life member in recognition of his 50 years of service.
At the time, Mr Harrold told The P&J: “I have loved every minute of my refereeing career.
“I knew fairly early on that I was never going to make the grade as a player but I loved the game and wanted to be involved.”
Despite retiring at the same time, Mr Harrold’s involvement with the sport continued until recently.
He died after a short illness on Friday, June 28.
His son Alasdair said: “The SFA was dad’s life. It was his hobby and his main interest and he was very devoted to it.
“Although he stopped doing the big games in 2010, he was still involved right up until March this year with junior football and going to games to give advice and tuition.
“He did some coaching with the SFA at Oldmachar Academy too and he really enjoyed that.”
Outside of football, Mr Harrold enjoyed travelling.
He celebrated his golden wedding anniversary with wife Kay in August with a holiday in Prague and the pair had recently flown to South Africa to visit relatives.
Mr Harrold was also renowned for the unusual blue poppies he carefully cultivated in his well-kept garden.
Alasdair Harrold added: “Dad will be remembered by a lot of people.
“We’ve been reading a lot of nice comments online.
“I’d say about 90% of them are mentioning that he was a true gentleman, and he definitely was.”
