When youre a referee of colour, you stand out more. But things are changing

June 27, 2024

On August 23, 1997, Uriah Rennie became the first black man to referee a Premier League match. Rennie, who made his bow overseeing a game between Leeds United and Crystal Palace, had a career that lasted 11 seasons and more than 170 games, until his final game on May 11, 2008, where he officiated a 2-0 victory for Liverpool over Tottenham. Rennie’s final appearance remains the last time a black man was the lead match official in a Premier League fixture.

Rennie was a trailblazer in English football but his status as the first and last black referee in Premier League football is a source of debate. Why have there been no black referees in the English top flight for 14 years?

“The first thing that I should acknowledge is I don’t think it’s good enough, for a game that is as colourful and as seemingly diverse as it is currently, that there has been one notable black referee in the middle,” says Ashley Hickson-Lovence, a former semi-professional referee and author of Your Show, a novel written in collaboration with Rennie, fictionalising the match official’s life story.

There were no non-white referees in the Championship or Premier League across the 2021-22 season, and out of the 200 referees that officiate in the top seven leagues in England, only four (two per cent) are black or Asian: Sam Allison, Joel Mannix, Aji Ajibola and Sunny Gill.

Sam Allison before a League Two match between Crawley Town and Port Vale in 2020 (Photo: Nathan Stirk/Getty Images)

“There have been issues in the past with the systems in place to get referees of colour — but also referees of certain marginalised communities — through the system because of the quite subjective observation and assessment system that you need to get promoted,” explains Hickson-Lovence.

“Referees are always going to make mistakes. You can’t get everything right. When you are a referee of colour, you will stand out even more and I feel that’s been to the detriment of many very talented semi-professional referees who are trying to climb that ladder.”

One person who helps semi-professional referees trying to rise through the ranks is Russell Hoyte, who works within the Lancashire & Cheshire Amateur Football League.

Hoyte came into his refereeing career in his late thirties, taking a free course with the Cheshire FA with 16 other players from his local league as part of a three-weekend programme. Several years later, Hoyte combines many roles for the Cheshire FA, serving as a referee, referee coordinator, and referee secretary. On an average week, he is responsible for 70 people, checking if they are available to referee a game of football. Hoyte says there are “four or five” non-white referees in the leagues he is responsible for (and no women of colour), and has a straightforward view on how to assign the right match official to a fixture.

“At a certain grassroots level,” says Hoyte, “the steps beyond a grassroots level are dependent on several circumstances: 1) is that person able to move above that standard? 2) Are the reports coming in about that person of a positive nature? If they’re not, why aren’t they of a positive nature?

“I’m sure, yes, there will have been circumstances where an individual’s colour has mattered, an individual’s sex has mattered, but in general, I would say it has been totally dependent on the abilities of the individual to officiate the game. You see where Ashley and I come from (in the football pyramid) and you go right to the top of the pyramid in this country, and there are not enough officials of colour. You have to look at why that is.

“Right at the bottom, there are not enough officials of colour at the bottom, and that’s a problem. If there’s more at the bottom level, by a natural process, they will push up and progress.”

Rennie books Fernando Torres during a Premier League game between Manchester City and Liverpool in 2007 (Photo: Mike Egerton – PA Images via Getty Images)

The “bottom level” that Hoyte describes comprises the majority of referees in the country. Figures taken last year saw the Football Association estimate that of the 24,500 active referees in England, 2,000 of those match officials identify themselves as being from black, Asian or minority ethnic backgrounds. The majority of these officials are seen at amateur to semi-professional level, officiating Sunday league games.

For several years, Hickson-Lovence was one of those referees, officiating games at Hackney Marshes in east London. Hickson-Lovence came to refereeing aged 16, taking care of adult fixtures in 2007. He spent several years officiating Sunday league games but explains that, in 2010, referees from minority backgrounds were discouraged from progressing further up the pyramid, a sentiment shared by The Black, Asian and Mixed heritage Ethnicity Referee Support Group.

In English football, referees are categorised into 13 levels: Levels 10 to 3, 2b and 2a cover everything from amateur to semi-professional and National League level. A further four elite criteria — Level 1, Select Group 2, Select Group and FIFA List/International — cover the Football League up to the Premier League and beyond.

Promotion to Level 4 — where one can be refereeing a senior amateur league game at the county level, or be an assistant referee at semi-professional (or contributory) league level — is described as one of the more difficult progressions, requiring one to have high marks in referee assessments across a full season where they have refereed a minimum of 20 matches and served as an assistant referee for five matches. On top of that, the FA require a mandatory fitness test and only a fixed number of referees can be promoted to Level 4 each season, depending on referees who are promoted to Level 3, demoted to Level 5, or retire or leave the game.

The jump from Level 5 to Level 4 is, essentially, the jump from refereeing as a hobby to a realistic future profession. Hoyte, who prefers to be the man in the middle over being an assistant referee, has chosen to stay at Level 5. Though he was initially hesitant to apply for promotion to Level 4, Hickson-Lovence did referee at that level for five years.

“As much as I enjoyed the process, I did have some dodgy observations,” he says. “Observations from FA observers who I felt weren’t judging me purely on my refereeing abilities.

“They were judging me on a number of factors. Those factors are not necessarily just race. The fact I was a London FA referee. The London FA didn’t have a good reputation for referees climbing the ladder. Even now, look at the top level and the south of England is harder (to break through from). (Although) Surrey FA has a decent reputation.

“I had a Fresh Prince-esque high top (haircut). Observers would comment on my hair. I had an earring that I would always take out and they would comment on my earrings. For many, I wasn’t in the mould of a traditional, conventional referee that could make it to the top. Sometimes that gets to you.

“I would have a good game, 22 handshakes at the end of the game, but the observer would have an issue with something and I didn’t think that was fair. I don’t think that’s a purely subjective experience. I’ve had friends — very good referees — who have been unfairly criticised because of the subjective observations and weighting criteria for them to get promoted.”

Sam Allison became only the second black referee in EFL history – behind Rennie – in the 2020-21 season (Photo: Jon Hobley/MI News/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Difficulties at Level 4 led Hickson-Lovence to leave officiating after a decade.

“I will go back to a match where I feel I had a really great game,” he says. “I had been five years as a semi-pro referee at this time. I had a really good game but I missed one yellow card in 90 minutes — it’s always good to recognise your own mistakes.

“Twenty-two handshakes, the assistant was pleased, fans were pleased. You know when it’s a bit awkward and the home team loses, and you’ve got to go into the boardroom, but they were all in good spirit — and then the observations in the assessment were very unfair. And it was at that moment I decided, ‘That’s it, I’ve had enough. It’s not my refereeing ability. It’s something else’.”

Despite walking away from officiating, Hickson-Lovence continues to be a referee observer himself.

“I’m on the other side and thankfully, the systems have changed for the better and we have necessary bias training,” he adds. “A lot of those issues I experienced going up through the system have been eradicated and it wasn’t pleasant.

“For five years, I wanted to be a Premier League referee because my hero, Uriah Rennie, was a Premier League referee, but as time went on, I thought, ‘That’s not going to happen. I don’t fit the mould’. It was demoralising at times, I have to say, but I do think it’s changing. I mean that sincerely. There are great people doing great things now.”

This February, the Premier League launched the Elite Referee Development Plan in the hopes of improving the standard and diversity of referees in the country. The scheme has been worked on alongside the FA, EFL and Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL). The FA has also set a target of 2024 to “grow the pipeline of a high-performing refereeing workforce across both grassroots and elite football, which is representative of females, black, Asian, mixed or other ethnic groups, and disabled people”.

Any such pipeline will need to consider the economic difficulties that need to be overcome to make it as a referee.

“At the bottom level, once they’ve passed their exams, they have to then go out and buy a shirt, a pair of shorts,” says Hoyte. “You also need flags, a watch, a pair of football boots — normally black at the moment, so you don’t stand out and look like you’re a showcase pony. A tracksuit to keep yourself warm, a bag to carry stuff.

“You can do referee courses, ranging from £100 to £150 depending on which postcode you happen to live in and which FA you do your course with. Before you’ve handed in your money, done the course, you have to get the equipment to be able to get about on a Saturday afternoon or Sunday morning.”

Ashley Hickson-Lovence, centre, pictured during his refereeing days (Photo: Canvey Island FC)

Hoyte estimates a person can spend “anything from £250 to £400” before they can even begin to start a refereeing career, and further promotion up the levels would see a person purchasing additional equipment, including buzzer flags and body cameras. While a referee would recoup some costs through part of the match subscription fees many Sunday league teams pay each week, it is a fine economic line that sees many decide against pursuing it as an occupation.

“You don’t want to do too many games to earn that money back,” adds Hickson-Lovence. “Your body needs rest between games. You can do three games on a Sunday but you’ll be knackered, and you’ll make mistakes. It’s probably disproportionately more expensive for black people but generally, people in lower socioeconomic backgrounds, working-class people, we could do better to get them into refereeing.”

A difficult job with unclear progression and varying pay is made even more challenging by the abuse that match officials suffer up and down the pyramid.

“I referee to the best of my ability,” says Hoyte, speaking with a veteran’s experience. “I’d rather just go, drive in my car, get there, do my game. If they want to pay me there and then, great. If I don’t get paid, then I’m not bothered. I drive home and get on with my life. That’s the easiest way for me to handle any situation I’m dealing with in terms of being a referee.

“It’s glorified playground football and the higher you get, it’s more glorified playground football. Yes, some of them are very lucky to be paid to do it. But it’s no different than when I played the game in my schoolyard 30 or 40 years ago. The rules are the same and it’s how people want to behave themselves that’s the problem.”

So why be a referee at all, no matter your skin colour? Hoyte and Hickson-Lovence describe refereeing as something that might appear thankless and not worth the stress to the outsider, yet nourishing to those who don the black shirt and blow the whistle.

“I would not be the person I am today — confident; I’m never fazed by anything — without being a referee at Hackney Marshes. I owe refereeing everything,” says Hickson-Lovence, who has been involved in refereeing since he was 17.

“Yes, there’s been some real concerning elements to it, however, the positives far outweigh the negatives. In relation to specific comments about me and my skin colour, I’ve never actually encountered any explicit overt racism at all in my various roles within refereeing circles. The only occasion that I did hear something I shouldn’t have was when I was 17 and I refereed a vets game, and someone was calling someone on his team something they shouldn’t.

“It’s been really positive, but I can’t escape those micro-aggressive, reading-between-the-lines, inferring things that have occurred.”

The next step for Hoyte is to create more opportunities in the game for those interested. From all walks of life.

“Could you have done a good job at a higher level?” Hoyte asks Hickson-Lovence. “We can’t say whether he would have done a great job and been the best Premier League match official going because he never got the opportunity to do so.

“I’m lucky. I’m in an area where there were a number of top-quality match officials who reached the top of their profession in this country. Anthony Taylor is from Cheshire. Chris Kavanagh. David Coote — not from Manchester but was Manchester FA referee development officer. There are others in the area who have gone through the systems in their local area, whether it be this particular area, and have been able to progress. I would like to see more.”

In the present day, Rennie now contributes to Sheffield FA as a referee observer. The “next Rennie” may not yet be in immediate sight but many remain hopeful for the future.

“We need to be there, giving people the opportunity to do so,” says Hoyte. “It’s like Ashley was saying before; I’m doing it because I love football. Yes, I could go and do a vets game of football. It’s probably been four or five years since I last kicked a football in anger. It doesn’t interest me. I’ve played too many games. I enjoy refereeing and I enjoy co-ordinating it.

“I don’t want to have referees who just referee at the level I got to. I want them to go beyond what I was doing. If they’re seeing me and my level, and that’s their ultimate goal, that’s fine, but I don’t want that. I want to find somebody who passes me by very quickly. I see them for one week and the week after, you can’t use that person because they’re too good.”

(Top photo: Richard Heathcote/Getty Images)

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