Honest question: I’m a longtime premier league fan from the US. In my over 10 years of watching English football, I’ve never seen a person of color as the center referee in a premier league match. Does anyone know why this is? A significant percentage (majority) of premier league players are not white, and given research around subconscious bias, you have to imagine the league and refereeing body would have an interest in having their game officials be representative of the players they officiate? With the quality of officiating being in the news so much recently, increasing diversity in the ranks of game officials could be one idea. I imagine it’s just a big old boys club though…
Football fans are not only some of the most fickle people around, they are horrifically racist.
They will find any reason to hurl abuse and insults to anyone that opposes their team or the decisions that go against them.
You can see grassroots football fans beating up refs, or belittling and harassing refs at an 8 year olds game.
It’s bad and hard enough becoming a ref, but a black ref will be absolutely ripped apart. It’s disgusting but that’s the truth.