Other occupation Technician Years League Name Nicolae Rainea | Role Referee Years League | |
![]() | ||
Born 19 November 1933Braila, Romania ( 1933-11-19 ) Died April 1, 2015, Bucharest, Romania |
In memoriam nicolae rainea 01 04 2015
Nicolae Rainea (19 November 1933 – 1 April 2015), nicknamed The Locomotive of the Carpathians, was a Romanian football referee.
Contents

Career

He refereed at three FIFA World Cups (1974, 1978, 1982), the UEFA Euro 1980 Final, the 1983 European Cup Final, the second leg of the 1978 European Super Cup and the second leg of the 1978 UEFA Cup Final.

Rainea officiated the Italy v Argentina game at the 1982 World Cup. He was limnesman in a later match between France and Northern Ireland.
Honours and legacy

Rainea was decorated by two presidents of Romania, Ion Iliescu and Traian Băsescu. He was made honorary citizen of Galați where he resided and served four local council terms.

Nicolae Rainea Stadium in Galați is named after him.
Personal life and death

In 2011, he celebrated 50 years of marriage. He had a son and a daughter, both living in Sweden.
After an untreated mild cold turned into a pulmonary edema, Rainea suffered a cardiac arrest while in hospital and died on 1 April 2015 in Galați. He was 81 years old.