English Referees Bring Home a Gift for Their Absent Colleague
Today, Bill Hamilton is being discharged from hospital after undergoing triple bypass surgery back home in England.
The 83-year-old has attended the Dana Cup every year since 1998 and was due to be part of this year's tournament as well. However, severe coronary artery disease brought those plans to an end.
"It turned out that the main arteries supplying my heart were blocked, one of them by as much as 99 per cent, so I had to undergo major heart surgery," Bill Hamilton told Viaplay.
Having been part of the Dana Cup for so many years, Bill has become something of an institution at the international youth football tournament. Anyone who has attended the Dana Cup over the years will remember the former BBC journalist cycling around the venue on his black bicycle.
"Bill is hugely popular among his fellow referees, and we're all very disappointed that he couldn't be with us this year. We wanted to show him just how much he means to us, so we're taking home a Dana Cup T-shirt for him, mounted in a glass frame and signed by all of us," said fellow referee Tim Lawrence, who is officiating at the Dana Cup for the tenth time.
This year's Dana Cup features 18 British referees, who will also have to manage without Bill Hamilton at the 2027 tournament, as his son is getting married that year. However, the referee, who will then be 85, fully expects to return to officiating at the Dana Cup in 2028.
Tim Lawrence is pictured on the left, alongside Thomas Jensen from the Dana Cup Referees' Administration on the right.
(Photo: Hans Ravn)
(Photo: Hans Ravn)
(Photo: Hans Ravn)
