“We don’t want to celebritise referees, but we want to humanise them,” says Howard Webb, chief refereeing officer for Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL), while sitting pitchside in Spain at a pre-season training camp for England’s elite officials.
“One of our key performance characteristics is around physical ability and being able to comfortably meet the evolving physical demands of the game.”
As part of a special podcast episode — Inside the World of Premier League Referees — The Athletic goes behind the scenes to find out how officials prepare and operate during a season under the spotlight.
“It’s undoubtedly more scrutinised than ever,” says Webb, who is concerned over the rise in “questioning of the motivations around decisions” rather than them simply being “human” and “made in the moment by somebody who wants to do a really good job”.
He says: “People will form an opinion that there’s something else behind that decision. There isn’t.”
The use and implementation of VAR remains a hot topic. “It’s almost like a bellwether for how successfully we’re delivering our officiating,” says Webb after a season of “progress” in 2024-25.
The former Premier League and World Cup final referee points to a reduction in VAR errors from 31 (2023-24) to 18 during the last campaign and an overall accuracy of decisions of 97.5 per cent according to the Key Match Incidents panel, an independent body that monitors officials’ performances.
Webb does accept there is room for improvement: “Each of those errors can be hugely impactful, of course, so we’re always focusing on bringing it down as much as we possibly can.”
After trials in cup competitions, VAR announcements from referees to the crowd are set to extend to the Premier League in the new season. At the seven-day camp near Alicante, they practised calls at a training-pitch VAR station. Referee Peter Bankes admits “it’s something we’ve probably been a little apprehensive about because this wasn’t in the script” but believes “we’ll be as ready as we possibly can be to nail that at the start of the season”.
PGMOL has appointed former Dutch referee Kevin Blom to the role of VAR performance coach to help raise standards, including overseeing the VAR enhanced training programme, which started in 2024.
Matt Donohue is an EFL referee promoted to Premier League VAR duties via the pathway. “Until you’ve sat in that chair for the first time and experienced what it’s like to have an intervention which has had an impact on a Premier League game of football, you don’t fully understand that adrenaline rush,” he says.
The feature podcast also discusses new laws — and innovations like ref cams and semi-automated offside technology — including the new eight-second rule for goalkeepers to avoid time wasting. “That’s something I’ve certainly thought was needed over the past few years because it’s very difficult penalising a goalkeeper,” says Bankes, who will count down the last five seconds of eight holding his hand aloft: “I just want to make sure that the two is the right way round and not the wrong way around.”
Andy Madley says referees have experimented with different techniques to help fans watching from a distance at big stadiums: “We’re even looking at the technical aspects: is it worth giving a little wave of the hand each time we count down the seconds?”
Madley also speaks openly about the mental strain on referees. “There are times I’ve made decisions on the Saturday, and I’ve had to question whether I’m in the right state of mind to go and referee the following Saturday, seven days later,” he says.
Last season, referee David Coote was sacked by PGMOL after two videos emerged via The Sun newspaper. In the first, he could be seen criticising former Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp, in the second The Sun claimed Coote could be seen sniffing white powder through a rolled-up bank note. In the aftermath, he came out as gay and said he’d hidden his sexuality to avoid abuse from fans.
Webb says mental health support for referees — they have their own dedicated coaches and psychologists — is a priority. “Some of the questions we’re asking are about their personal life to make sure this is not just something we expect them to cope with… this stiff upper lip,” he explains. “Reaching out for help is not a sign of weakness, it’s not going to affect your appointments and we really have a focus on that.”
Mental health support is coupled with elite-level physical preparation and deep analysis of performance data throughout pre-season and beyond. “As soon as they’ve finished a session, be it in Carlisle or if they’re away in Kazakhstan for a game, they can sync it and we can see it,” says PGMOL senior sports scientist Francis Bunce, who oversees maximum velocity and maximal aerobic speed (MAS) tests. The latter is to see “who is willing to put themselves in a dark place”, says Matt Willmott, PGMOL lead physical coach.
Premier League assistant referee Akil Howson’s view: “MAS? We call it hell.”
Referees are put through their paces at their pre-season camp in Spain (Adam Leventhal/The Athletic)
It serves the purpose of allowing him and his colleagues to keep pace with Premier League players like Newcastle United’s Anthony Elanga, who can reach up to 37 kilometres per hour. “We’re working at 32, 33kph at our top speed so we’re there or thereabouts,” says Howson.
James Wilson, part of an officiating team The Athletic shadows at a game, speaks about a variety of topics, including seeing offside decisions like a “beachball”. Plus unwanted attention from fans: “I’ve been called absolutely everything.”
Fourth official John Busby outlines an incident when “a fan was waiting for me in the car park”, while referee James Linington concludes: “It’s not right that we should be thick-skinned, but it’s part of our culture, unfortunately.”
Caffeine gum, pre-match superstitions and carefully curated smoothies are also part of a referee’s world. “There’s a lot of research that will show the fitter we are and better condition we have, the more cognitive improvements we see,” says senior sports scientist and lead nutritionist Vicky Smith. “They’re going to be able to make freer decisions with more energy available for the brain, rather than having to recover.”
Listen to Inside the World of Premier League Referees — a special episode of The Athletic FC podcast — here
(Top photos: Getty Images; design: Eamonn Dalton)