Level the playing field: Why are there still so few Black referees?
As the Premier League kicks off this weekend you're unlikely to see a non-white official on the pitch. With so many initiatives to improve diversity in football – why is refereeing lagging behind?
When news broke in early June that former Premier League referee Uriah Rennie had died, the football world mourned a pioneer of the game. The first person from a Black, Asian, or mixed heritage background to referee a top-flight football match in England, Rennie was a trailblazer known for his charisma, commanding presence on the pitch, and consistent dedication to community and charity work off it.
Despite Rennie's impact on English football, for 15 years after his retirement in 2008, he remained the only official from an ethnic minority background ever employed by the Premier League. It wasn't until late 2023, when Sam Allison oversaw a relegation scrap between Sheffield United and Luton, that this damning record was broken.
Allison's rise to the top flight reflects a broader increase in diversity amongst British refereeing in recent years, with the proportion of match officials from Black, Asian, and mixed heritage populations moving up from a shockingly low 2 per cent in 2023 to around 10 per cent in 2025. National census data shows that these communities combined total roughly 16-18 per cent of the UK population, so clearly, there is still some way to go when it comes to improving representation in officiating.
“Refereeing is still far too homogenous,” says author Ashley Hickson-Lovence, the author of the novel Your Show, which dramatises Rennie's life and career. “It feels like it's come a long way, but do I think 10 per cent is good enough? No.” Hickson-Lovence is a qualified referee and has been vocal about the obstacles he faced when climbing the ranks, telling us, “it was incredibly demoralising when it felt like the system wasn't fair. I wanted to quit the vocation that I love.”
It's important to credit the changes that have been made to address the statistical underrepresentation of ethnic minorities in British football officiating. The appointment of Raj Randhawa as the English Football Association's National Refereeing EDI Delivery Manager has had impressive results.
Focused on improving equity, diversity, and inclusion within the domestic sport, he has helped initiate talent ID events for referees of colour and mentoring programmes for those showing promise, while the FA Core project has helped fast-track talented officials up the pyramid.
Crucially, the ongoing work of influential pressure groups and stakeholders like BAMREF and Kick It Out has helped kick the FA into action, with inspiring voices like Aji Ajibola and Joel Mannix continually campaigning for greater inclusivity within officiating.
“Earlier this year, we launched our new mentoring programme in partnership with BAMREF,” Raj Randhawa tells The Lead. “This involves over 40 referee mentors trained up and deployed across the country, providing bespoke support to referees from Black, Asian and mixed heritage backgrounds who complete the FA's bursary-funded training course. Mentees benefit from monthly 1-2-1 meetings with their mentor who shares advice and support as they prepare to referee their first match and beyond. We want to create a culture of support.”
“I feel really encouraged by what we're seeing,” says Hickson-Lovence. “I suppose that positivity comes from years of being incredibly annoyed by the very little that was happening previously in terms of encouraging Black referees, referees of colour, working-class referees… in 2023/24, I refereed again, and it felt so different. I had a really good relationship with the guys at the Norfolk County FA, they championed and supported me, and they were probably devastated that I got injured when I did [in September 2024].”
Behind the scenes, Hickson-Lovence notes shifts in how the marking system works for referee observations, with the criteria “less about finding faults in a referee's performance.” Randhawa notes how there are greater opportunities for officials to advance and move up the pyramid if they perform well.
“Historically, you would have to wait until the end of the season to see if you get promoted, whereas there are now different windows in the season for promotions,” he explains. “That helps the referees who are committed and inspired to reach the top of the game.”
New routes to succeed
Pathways to the top are crucial; the FA may have employed more referees of colour in the last two years, but ensuring that the brightest are promoted when suitable is the next key step. After all, the Premier League still only has two referees from ethnic minority backgrounds today: Sam Allison and Sunny Singh Gill, the league's first British South Asian referee.
This representation has a tangible impact. Singh Gill recently told the Premier League, “You want the younger generation to look at you and think ‘I can also do it’... parents are looking at us thinking, ‘Wow, we have Asian kids in the Premier League officiating games, my son can give that a go, my daughter can give that a go.’”
Between them, Singh Gill and Allison have overseen only five top-flight matches in total, and questions have been asked about whether progression has been too slow. However, it's also important to consider the pressure being placed on refs like Allison, who are viewed as representing a broader marginalised community, whether they like it or not.
Today, referees face more scrutiny from fans than ever before, and several concerning reports show that this often leads to horrific verbal and even physical abuse against officials. This is both in-person and online, with Founder of United Against Online Abuse Mohammed Ben Sulayem stating “the scale of abuse is continuing to grow against football officials.”
In this climate, where white referees at the top level of British football face abhorrent levels of abuse, the reality is that referees of colour are heavily exposed to racism and hatred. The FA has strict protocol in place for referees facing abuse, and Randhawa explains how the organisation's Enough is Enough campaign “aims to raise awareness of discriminatory behaviour in grassroots football and the significant consequences that will face perpetrators of hate.”
He adds: “We work alongside our County FA network to offer all referees in their local area with appropriate support if this is needed, and if anyone is a victim of hate or discriminatory abuse, we make specialist support available including a range of mental health and emotional well-being services delivered by the charity Sporting Chance.”
According to Hickson-Lovence, when it comes to reducing scrutiny on officials from ethnic minority backgrounds, like Allison, “it would be better to have safety in numbers.” He says: “The hard work he's put in, the climb that he's had, hasn't been celebrated. There's been criticism from some quarters in terms of why he's there and if he's good enough. I don't think Howard and the PGMOL [the Professional Game Match Officials Limited, the body responsible for overseeing British professional refereeing] would've put him there if he wasn't good enough.”
This gets to the crux of the matter. Clearly, things are progressing, with the FA's announcement that officials including Farai Hallam and Ruebyn Ricardo will join a newly-created supplementary list for the Select group in the 2025/26 season. But there is still a lack of diversity in professional refereeing, and it is not down to a lack of talent; rather, it's a reflection of the historic bias (intentional or unconscious) of those responsible for overseeing British officiating.
Figures like Raj Randhawa, with support from stakeholders like BAMREF, are helping to change things within the FA, and the initial progress has been good. But there's still a long way to go. According to Statista, around 43 per cent of Premier League players are Black, and around 34 per cent of EFL (tiers 2-4) players. Campaigners won't relax until officiating starts to reflect this diversity.
The Lead approached the PGMOL for comment but received no response by the time of publication.■
About the author: Fred Garratt-Stanley is a freelance journalist who writes about culture, politics, football, and pubs. He's based in London and has written for a wide range of publications including The Lead, The Guardian, NME, Huck, and Pellicle.
It's because of the same shit as in America just now. Racism.
Really interesting, we watched the Bournemouth match last night and asked the same question