From the archive: The impossible job: inside the world of Premier League referees
William Ralston's Guardian Long Read investigates the world of Premier League referees, exploring the immense physical, psychological, and technological pressures they face. The piece follows referees Darren England and Andre Marriner through a season, examining how VAR has complicated rather than simplified officiating, and why despite measurable improvements in accuracy, public perception of referees has never been worse.
Summary
William Ralston's long-form investigation provides rare insider access to Premier League referees and the Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL), the body that manages them. The piece was prompted by an unusual level of public hostility toward referees at the time of writing, with fans and pundits arguing that VAR had made officiating worse rather than better.
The article opens by following referee Darren England through a match between Fulham and Newcastle, illustrating the split-second complexity of decision-making on the pitch. England initially shows a yellow card for a challenge, only to be guided by VAR to upgrade it to a red card after reviewing pitch-side footage. The incident highlights both the value and the burden of VAR technology. England articulates a core argument that runs throughout the piece: football officiating is inherently subjective, and until fans accept that there is often 'no correct' answer, dissatisfaction will persist.
The piece profiles Andre Marriner, one of England's most experienced referees, who began refereeing for pocket money and worked as a postman before becoming a full-time official. Marriner's career illustrates the human cost of the job — his son was bullied at school after contentious decisions, and referees at all levels face threats, physical assault, and abuse. Former referee Mike Dean's family received death threats and petrol bomb warnings online. At grassroots level, a referee in Lancashire suffered a broken nose, broken ribs, and concussion after being assaulted by a player.
A significant portion of the piece examines VAR in depth. Introduced in the 2019-2020 Premier League season, VAR was designed to eliminate clear and obvious errors but has instead generated its own category of controversy. Critics argue it has made referees complacent on the pitch, slows the game to a frustrating crawl, and frequently fails at its core mission. UEFA's refereeing chief Roberto Rossetti argues the problem is not the technology itself but its over-application — when he tested VAR on every incident in a match, it produced seven penalties and three red cards. 'This is not football,' he said. The silence in the VAR hub at Stockley Park is noted as a disorienting factor — without crowd noise or commentary, VARs lose their ability to 'read the game' instinctively.
Ralston visits a PGMOL training camp at St George's Park, where referees participate in a Penalty Area Incident Survey. Even among the world's best referees reviewing the same footage multiple times, a clip produced a 26-23 split on whether VAR intervention was warranted — demonstrating that the subjectivity problem cannot be solved by technology alone.
The piece also examines cognitive biases affecting referees, including social bias (referees are 40% more likely to show yellow cards to the away team) and omission bias (less experienced referees become passive late in matches). Norwegian referee Tom Henning Ovrebo reflects on the 2009 Champions League semi-final where he denied Chelsea multiple penalties — he had become so focused on not being deceived by the home team that he overcorrected.
The evaluation system at PGMOL is scrutinised. Referees are assessed by anonymous analysts watching silent video footage, which critics argue cannot capture the contextual judgment required in live match management. Marriner was docked marks for not carding a Spurs player even though he believed issuing the card would have cost him control of the match. Philosopher Seth Bordner's argument is cited — that officiating inconsistency is a price paid for a more enjoyable game, and that perfect consistency would require stripping football of its subjective elements entirely.
The piece closes with Marriner reflecting on why referees do the job despite its hardships. His answer is crystallised in a single memory: standing on the pitch at Old Trafford in 2011 as Wayne Rooney scored a bicycle kick in the Manchester derby. In the video, Marriner is briefly visible in the frame before disappearing entirely as the camera follows the celebration. That moment — invisible, with nothing to do, having facilitated something extraordinary — encapsulates the quiet satisfaction at the heart of the impossible job.
About this episode
We are raiding the Guardian long read archives to bring you some classic pieces from years past, with new introductions from the authors. This week, from 2023: Players, pundits and fans complain bitterly that referees are getting worse each season – but is that fair? By William Ralston. Read by Simon Darwen. Help support our independent journalism at <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/longreadpod">theguardian.com/longreadpod</a>
Key Insights
- Referee Darren England argues that for many decisions in football there is simply 'no correct' answer, and that until fans accept the inherent subjectivity of officiating, dissatisfaction will never go away.
- Despite widespread public perception of declining referee quality, PGMOL's own data suggests referees are actually making fewer mistakes per match each season — though critics note this data is collected by PGMOL itself and very little of it has been made public.
- UEFA refereeing chief Roberto Rossetti found that when VAR was applied to review every incident in a single match, it produced seven penalties and three red cards — leading him to conclude that over-application of the technology undermines the spirit of the game.
- Former Swiss referee Urs Meyer argues that VAR has made on-field referees complacent, causing them to dodge big decisions and neglect fundamentals like positioning, because they know a second chance exists.
- PGMOL psychologist Paul Russell identifies the 'golden second' — the brief moment after blowing a whistle where referees must resist the pace of events and think through their next decision — as critical to high-level officiating.
- Research cited in Stuart Carrington's book found referees are approximately 40% more likely to show a yellow card to the away team than the home team, a phenomenon attributed to social bias and crowd influence.
- At a PGMOL training session using real match clips, a room of 49 Premier League referees and coaches split 26-23 on whether a specific incident warranted VAR intervention, illustrating that even elite officials cannot agree on what constitutes a 'clear and obvious error'.
- Former Champions League final referee Mark Clattenburg revealed in his autobiography that he deliberately awarded a soft penalty to Atletico Madrid to compensate for an earlier missed offside that had incorrectly benefited Real Madrid — framing it as match management rather than error.
- Norwegian referee Tom Henning Ovrebo told Ralston that in the infamous 2009 Champions League semi-final he should have awarded Chelsea at least one penalty, but he had overcorrected in trying not to be swayed by the home crowd.
- Referee Darren England's evaluation system relies on anonymous analysts watching silent video recordings of matches, a process that PGMOL head Howard Webb acknowledged likely cannot capture the full interpretive complexity of live in-stadium officiating.
- The article reports that following its publication, referee Anthony Taylor was confronted by angry fans at Budapest airport after the Europa League final and placed under temporary police protection — illustrating the escalation of off-pitch hostility toward officials.
- Philosopher Seth Bordner argued in a 2019 paper that officiating inconsistency is the structural price of making football enjoyable, and that eliminating subjectivity from the laws would require changes to the game so radical as to make it unrecognisable — a point illustrated by Gary Lineker's reversal on the handball law.
Topics
Transcript
This is The Guardian. The Guardian Archive Long Read. Hi, my name's William Ralston and I'm the journalist who wrote The Impossible Job Inside the World of Premier League Referees, which was published in April 2023. The article is a look at who referees are and what they do. The story, for anyone who follows football, is kind of a low-hanging fruit. I think everyone who worked in long-form journalism recognised that there was a story there because at the time of writing it, there was an extraordinary amount of noise and criticism around referees. People were saying that VAR was making them worse, PGMOL, the body that manages them, were denying that and there was this friction. I suppose…
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