Premier League is by far the most popular professional sports league in the world and according to statistics more than half of the population tune in at some points on premier league match weekend on tv or other sources to engage with the league. Premier League features number of clubs who are consistently numbered in top 10 richest clubs in the world, the huge fan following and multi-millions of pounds riding on results every week. We know the clubs, players and the managers but what about the match officials ? How are the selected to officiate games in premier league ? well here is a procedure how Premier league authorities select match referee and assistance for the premier league games.
Professional Game Match Officials Board (PGMOB):
Premier League Match officials use to be non professionals working as part-timers in the past but in 2001 referees in England top flight league “Premier League” became professional and PGMOB (Professional game official board) was formed which has a selected group of referees panel who officiate premier league games. The Board (PGMOB) works throughout the year to recruit new referees, develop better level of officiating in league games. The current head of the board is former Premier League and FIFA referee Mike Relay.
Premier League Referee Panel:
A selected group of referee panel is appointed by PGMOB before the start of each premier league season, The panel include around 15 to 20 referees who officiat league games every week. The number of games awarded to each referee is depend on the experience and performance. Every match official performances is tracked by PGMOB throughout every game and season.
Appointment of Match Officials Before the Premier League ?
Usually the match officials appointments for every premier league game is disclosed very close to the date of the game, quite often its just 2 days before the match. Here is the list of match officials currently on Selected group panel.
| # | Referee | Age | Appointment Since | Other Affiliations |
| 1 | Martin Atkinson | 43 | 2005 | FIFA |
| 2 | Mark Clattenburg | 39 | 2004 | FIFA, UEFA |
| 3 | Mike Dean | 46 | 2001 | UEFA |
| 4 | Phil Dowd | 51 | 2001 | UEFA |
| 5 | Roger East | 49 | 2013 | UEFA |
| 6 | Chris Foy | 52 | 2001 | |
| 7 | Kevin Friend | 43 | 2009 | UEFA |
| 8 | Mike Jones | 46 | 2008 | UEFA |
| 9 | Robert Madley | 29 | 2013 | |
| 10 | Andre Marriner | 44 | 2005 | FIFA |
| 11 | Lee Mason | 43 | 2006 | |
| 12 | Jonathan Moss | 44 | 2011 | |
| 13 | Michael Oliver | 29 | 2010 | FIFA |
| 14 | Craig Pawson | 35 | 2013 | FIFA |
| 15 | Lee Probert | 42 | 2007 | FIFA |
| 16 | Neil Swarbrick | 49 | 2011 | |
| 17 | Anthony Taylor | 36 | 2010 | FIFA |
I agree with what Arsene Wenger said about the EPL Refs being protected. They are inconsistent and it seems as though they are no penalties (pun unintended because they are giving way too many penalty calls) or reviews for bad calls in games. They have always been this way, the difference today is that their decisions are now making things really difficult in the log because teams are so close (points wise). Identical fouls get different decisions in the same game by the same ref. How is that? Can someone also explain the offside rule to me? How can a player’s hand be offside if he doesn’t use it to score? How can that be an unfair advantage if he isn’t allowed to use it to score.
I am a fan of the sport and no expert but I think that these refs are just getting away with murder. I understand that we should allow for human error but they shouldn’t be influenced by crowd/player reaction.
P.S. Mark Clattenburg hates Manchester United Football Club (in my opinion)