Thomas Balvay Thomas Balvay Thomas Balvay (2 February 1888 – 15 July 1945) was a football referee in the 1920s and 1930s and one of four European referees who participated in the first FIFA World Cup in 1930 in Uruguay. He was the only match official from France at the tournament. He had been an international referee since 1922 and twice refereed the Coupe de France (in 1926 and 1928). He travelled to Uruguay on the SS "Conte Verde", which also took Jules Rimet and the French, Belgian, Romanian and Brazilian teams to the first World Cup; picking up the teams en
Roy Keane during an incident ahead of that year's FIFA World Cup when Keane engaged in a public quarrel and left the squad. Triggs accompanied Keane on regular walks pursued by the press. The footballer said of Triggs, "Unlike humans, dogs don't talk shit". "The Daily Telegraph"s Steve Wilson once described Triggs as "the most famous dog in football since Pickles, a mongrel who dug up the stolen Jules Rimet Trophy in 1966, or that dog that relieved itself on Jimmy Greaves at the 1962 World Cup". Henry Winter, writing in the same paper, called Triggs "the fittest dog in Cheshire" and