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…
The question should not ever be about colour, the question should ONLY ever be about quality. Personally I think the PL would benefit massively by getting reffs from outside of the UK as it could remove some of the ingrained bias they could have for/against certain clubs. And lets be honest, they certainly couldnt do a worse job than the current group, so whats the harm in trying it?