José María Ortiz de Mendíbil, or simply José María Ortiz (11 August 1926, Portugalete, Basque Country, Spain - Algorta, Spain, 15 September 2015)^[1] was a Spanish referee, active from 1953 to 1973.

Career

During his 18 seasons in La Liga, between 1953 and 54 and 1972 and 73, he led 241 league games, with a record of 138 home wins, 59 draws, and 44 visitor victories. He was promoted to international status the seasons 1958 and 1959, and was in it until the end of his career. In 1966 he reached out to the match between Real Madrid - CF Barcelona 11 minutes more than the statutory 90, until the home side scored the 1-0 final. The reasoning subsequently dwindled down, from excessively prolonged meeting, was that the clock had stopped him. For this and other events, was branded a referee akin to Real Madrid.^{[2] [3]}

In his retirement, he was a partner in the UEFA and pioneer in Spain with the programs of TVE, where he worked for 5 years, apart from collaborating in programs Cadena SER and Tele Bilbao.