by Andrew Crawshaw
Who is on duty this coming weekend?
Matchweek 11 – Friday/Saturday/Sunday
We have now reached the quarter point in the season with most teams having their 10th game of the campaign.
The Brighton v Crystal Palace, Chelsea v Liverpool and Manchester United v Leeds United games are deferred so those teams are re-playing their ninth games.
In addition, all of the games scheduled for matchweek 7 were deferred following the Death of the Queen.
I will therefore trawl through the referee facts and figures I have for anything that piques my interest.
We have now reached the quarter point in the season with most teams having their 10th game of the campaign.
The Brighton v Crystal Palace, Chelsea v Liverpool and Man United v Leeds games are deferred so those teams are re-playing their ninth games. In addition, all of the games scheduled for matchweek 7 were deferred following the Death of the Queen.
I will therefore trawl through the referee facts and figures I have for anything that piques my interest.
| Match | Referee | Assistant Referees | 4th Official | VAR referee | Assistant VAR Referee |
| Friday 20:00 | |||||
| Brentford v Brighton | Michael Salisbury | Neil Davies, Timothy Wood | Graham Scott | Mike Dean | Nick Hopton |
| Saturday 12:30 | |||||
| Leicester v Crystal Palace | Andy Madley | Derek Eaton, Steve Meredith | Chris Kavanagh | Mike Dean | Lee Betts |
| Saturday 15:00 | |||||
| Fulham v AFC Bournemouth | Graham Scott | Adrian Holmes, Matthew Wilkes | John Brooks | Robert Jones | Timothy Wood |
| Wolves v Nottm Forest | Thomas Bramall | Simon Long, Richard West | Anthonyy Taylor | Lee Mason | Darren Cann |
| Saturday 17:30 | |||||
| Spurs v Everton | Paul Tierney | Constantine Hatzidakis
Harry Lennard |
Stuart Attwell | Andre Marriner | Mark Scholes |
| Sunday 14:00 | |||||
| Aston Villa v Chelsea | Robert Jones | Lee Betts
ian Hussin |
Michael Salisbury | Stuart Attwell | James Mainwaring |
| Leeds v Arsenal | Chris Kavanagh | Dan Cook, Dan Robathan | Michael Oliver | Paul Tierney | Wade Smith |
| Man United v Newcastle | Craig Pawson | Marc Perry, Scott Ledger | David Coote | Jarred Gillett | Neil Davies |
| Southampton v West Ham | Peter Bankes | Eddie Smart, Nick Greenhalgh | Tony Harrington | Simon Hooper | Adrian Holmes |
| Sunday 16:30 | |||||
| Liverpool v Man City | Anthony Taylor | Gary Beswick, Adam Nunn | Andy Madley | Darren England | Simon Bennett |
Firstly a table showing which referees have been busy and which haven’t.
19 referees have been used so far this season and their games range from nine for Anthony Taylor to two for Graham Scott.
Statistically, the top three have been overused and the bottom three are underused (according to normal distribution). In any case the fact of one referee having done more than four times the games of another is inexcusable.
So far no team has had a referee for three matches, which is positive, Chelsea have had a different referee each week which is good but every other team has had at least one referee twice, indeed four teams have had three repeat referees which really poor at this stage of the season.
| Team | Repeat Referees | ||
| Arsenal | Anthony Taylor | ||
| Aston Villa | Robert Jones | ||
| Bournemouth | Craig Pawson | ||
| Brentford | John Brooks | ||
| Brighton | Michael Salisbury | Tony Harrington | |
| Crystal Palace | Paul Tierney | Andy Madley | |
| Everton | Michael Oliver | Andre Marriner | |
| Fulham | Jarred Gillett | ||
| Leeds United | Stuart Attwell | Michael Salisbury | |
| Liverpool | Anthony Taylor | Michael Oliver | Andy Madley |
| Man City | Anthony Taylor | Michael Oliver | |
| Man United | Paul Tierney | Michael Oliver | Craig Pawson |
| Newcastle | Craig Pawson | ||
| Nottm Forest | Robert Jones | ||
| Southampton | Andy Madley | Tony Harrington | |
| Tottenham | Anthony Taylor | Simon Hooper | |
| Southampton | Andy Madley | Tony Harrington | Andre Marriner |
| West Ham | Michael Oliver | Peter Bankes | |
| Wolverhampton | Anthony Taylor | Simon Hooper | John Brooks |
It has long been the opinion of Untold that the PGMO should have a sufficient roster of referees to ensure that no team should have anyone more than twice in a season, once at home and once away. To have a situation where teams have had referees who have only had the whistle four times already is greatly worrying.
In addition to their appearances as referees, Graham Scott and Tony Harrington have also been called on to act as the fourth official on seven occasions. Anthony Taylor and Craig Pawson have been Fourth Officials on five occasions.
Coming to the VAR officials Lee Mason has done 11 games, one ahead of Mike Dean, Paul Tierney has nine, Jarred Gillett eight and the trio of Darren England, Michael Salisbury and Stuart Attwell seven. At the other end of the scale, Robert Jones has done a single game, Andy Madley, Graham Scott, Michael Oliver and Tony Harrington have each done two. Anthony Taylor hasn’t been asked to view the monitors at all (but then he’s probably too busy with other duties).
Footnote from Tony: The question arises, as to why the system of appointing referees is run in this way. Of course, PGMO cannot be asked because they have no mechanism through which we can ask them and because the utterly compliant media refuse to raise this, or indeed any other referee-related issue, as a matter of public debate. So we raise it, as a straightforward question: why are some referees used so much more than others? But answer comes there none.
