15 years on since Uriah Rennies last match, why are there no black referees in the Premier League

“My belief is there won’t be another black referee in the Premier League,” offers Joel Mannix. “That’s the challenge, but why is it a challenge?”

Mannix is the chairman of the Black, Asian and Mixed Ethnicity Referee Support Group (BAMREF). He established the organisation in 2019 to help aspiring referees break through. The Szymanski Report, which was commissioned by the Black Footballers Partnership and published last year, revealed 34 per cent of players in the English Football League in 2021 were black while the figure rose to 43 per cent in the Premier League. However, there is a huge lack of diversity when it comes to the most important role on the pitch.

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During the 2021-22 season, there were no non-white referees in the Championship or Premier League and only four out of 200 referees in the top seven divisions were black or Asian — Sam Allison, Aji Ajibola, Joel Mannix and Sunny Singh Gill.

Allison made his debut in the Championship in February when he oversaw a 0-0 draw between Hull City and Preston North End. He has been a fourth official for Premier League games, too, while Akil Howson was an assistant referee in Brentford’s 1-1 draw with Crystal Palace in February.

Last August, Singh Gill took charge of Northampton Town’s 2-1 victory over Hartlepool United, becoming the first British South Asian to referee an EFL fixture since his father, Jarnail Singh, over a decade ago. In the Women’s Super League, Lauren Impey is the only black female referee.

Today marks the 15th anniversary of the last Premier League match Uriah Rennie officiated. After 11 seasons and over 170 games in the top flight, Rennie ended his career by taking charge of Liverpool’s 2-0 victory over Tottenham Hotspur on May 11, 2008.

Since then, not a single fixture in England’s top division has been refereed by a black or Asian referee.

BAMREF’s origins can be traced back to an email Mannix received over four years ago.

The hierarchy of refereeing in English football is complicated. Officials are categorised into 13 levels: Levels 10 to 3, 2b and 2a cover everything from amateur to semi-professional football and the National League. A further four divisions — Level 1, Select Group 2, Select Group 1 and FIFA List/International — cover the Football League up to the Premier League and beyond. To make matters even more confusing, responsibility for these groups is split between the Football Association and Professional Game Match Officials Limited. PGMOL looks after the elite referees in Select Group 1 and 2, as well as National Group (Leagues 1 & 2), WSL and Women’s Championship.

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Moving up to a new level involves being assessed by observers on different criteria and passing a fitness test. Only a fixed number of referees are promoted each season depending on any movement or retirements in the tier above them.

Mannix was waiting to find out if he had been promoted into level 2b. He was visiting his brother in hospital when he started receiving text messages from colleagues who made the cut. Mannix kept refreshing his emails but nothing popped up until the full ratification list was sent over.

“They promoted 18 referees and I finished 13th,” Mannix tells The Athletic. “They took the officials ranked from 1st to 12th and 14th to 19th. How does that work?

“I’ve always said levels three and four are ‘the black man’s graveyard’. That’s where the bottleneck of black referees is because they are good enough to go through the county level, but then they just get lost in the system.

“They told me they didn’t want to take too many referees from the south (of England). It’s nonsense. There are referees in the Championship I used to work with. They were my assistants and tell me, ‘You are by far a better referee than me’. I was trying to draw up allies and spoke to Aji (Ajibola). He said my story was happening to a lot of people. You could write a book on the horror stories which came out.”

Mannix decided to speak out.

He was invited to attend a Kick It Out conference in April 2019 and shared his story at the event attended by representatives from the FA, PGMOL and the Premier League. BAMREF grew organically from that moment as Mannix and Ajibola decided the community needed to rally together. They now have a network of over 300 members, male and female, across the country.

Mannix, who runs his own security company and has acted as a bodyguard for former world heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua, UFC fighter Conor McGregor and Kim Kardashian, recognises the impact BAMREF has had on the wider community. Last month he attended a match in his local area and was recognised.

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“There were three black officials and they said, ‘Hi Joel, how are you? You’re from BAMREF, you represent us’,” Mannix says. “The referee called me up afterwards and said, ‘Can you give me any tips?’. The linesman did as well. They would have never seen me or known me.”

Mannix suggests some people are “scared” of joining BAMREF though because of how they would be perceived.

“One of our biggest challenges, and what people are struggling with, is that concept of in any other industry you have the black lawyers network or the black police union,” Ajibola, BAMREF’s vice-chairman, says. “So why is refereeing any different? Why do you find it threatening BAMREF exists to support black and Asian referees? Why is that a problem for you? There is a bit of education that is required.”

The other problem BAMREF is trying address is the lack of diversity among the observers who conduct referee assessments. Rennie is one of the only black or Asian observers and works for Sheffield’s FA.

“That is another way of pulling through more referees of our heritage and helping them,” Val Anekwe, BAMREF’s safeguarding officer, says. “When I was coming through, there were no black observers. It was always an old white man who probably stopped officiating a long time ago.”

Mannix tried to become an observer, but kept facing resistance.

“I asked to go on the course to become an observer for two years and there is always a stumbling block,” Mannix says. “‘You need to do this’. I’ve done that. ‘We can’t find your email, your paperwork, send it again’ or, ‘There is a training course you can go on in November’. What do you mean? We are in April.”

In June 2022, the FA suspended one of its assessors for four months. A three-person disciplinary panel found two charges of racial abuse by former police officer Michael Ewen had been proved. These are the attitudes BAMREF are fighting against.

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Ajibola’s main role with BAMREF is to offer guidance, support, mentoring and counselling to their members as well as working with football’s governing bodies on key areas of improvement. Ajibola transitioned to become a referee when he was only 19 after a serious injury ended his playing career. He has experience at National League level and was the fourth official in the FA Cup third-round tie between Ipswich Town and Rotherham United earlier this season.

“We need to look at recruitment and how courses are facilitated,” he tells The Athletic. “Rarely do you see any initiatives go into our communities. You have to look at language barriers, where these communities are and what kind of engagement is going on. We are helping to educate stakeholders around those challenges.

“We are talking about retention too. It’s very easy to get frustrated if you’re not making progress. God knows why I’m still here after 20 years. Representation is a big one as well. In 150 years of professional football (in England), we have only had eight referees of colour — it is just bonkers. Black History Month is the only time you will see a black referee (on TV). My son saw a black referee in FIFA 23 for the first time and said, ‘Dad is that you?’. If you can’t see it, you can’t be it.”

When Ajibola is not refereeing, or doing his day job as a key account manager for the electronics company Canon, he is constantly in meetings with stakeholders. As the profile of the organisation grows, they have “gotten into a number of rooms we were never in before to challenge people”.

“We have gone on a journey,” Ajibola says. “From a mental health perspective, the benefits of the group have been strong. In a number of areas across the country, there is no thought given to black and Asian officials. You’ve got so many colleagues being neglected. They are always the minority, but with us we are a family. Having a group like this where we can all come together and run a regular base of support for each other is important.”

Last July, BAMREF held their first-ever conference at Villa Park and over 120 referees attended. Mike Riley, the PGMOL’s managing director, went to the event and Mannix says it was an opportunity to have “frank discussions”. The plan is for the next conference to be held at Wembley in July. BAMREF recently launched a quarterly newsletter too which will keep members informed of important developments.

We’re kicking off The Inaugural black, Asian and Mixed Ethnicity Referee support Group conference ⚽️🎊@FA @kickitout #ref #FIFA22 #football pic.twitter.com/tGc5syP1hN

— BAMREF Support Group (@BAMERef) July 24, 2022

Anekwe started out as a referee over a decade ago by running the line during his oldest son’s football matches. Anekwe accepts he will never get to what he describes as “the promised land”, but is determined to help other referees fulfil their ambitions of reaching the top flight.

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“It’s about trying to get the message across to people of what we are about,” he tells The Athletic. “So if anybody asks, ‘What can you do for me? How can you help me?’ they are clear on what help is available and how they can access it. We had people coming from south Wales and the north of England. When all these referees from different parts of the country come together, you can have those conversations and encourage people to keep going.”

Since BAMREF was set up four years ago, their relationships with the FA and PGMOL have strengthened. In July 2022, PGMOL appointed Arran Williams to the newly created role of equality, diversity and inclusion manager. Last month, Raj Randhawa became the FA’s refereeing EDI delivery manager too. PGMOL also set up the Elite Referee Development Plan in the summer, to enhance standards and create broader diversity among officials. This season, PGMOL says more than 200 opportunities to officiate in higher divisions have been presented to the Development Group — including at Premier League and Championship level.

“There has always been that dichotomy of views and ways of working between the two organisations that have led to a number of hindrances in making real progress,” Ajibola says. “We are starting to see a much more collaborative approach. They have reached out continuously to say, ‘How do we make things better going forward around the three organisations?’ Let’s formalise that so people stop being afraid of joining BAMREF because they know the work we’re doing is the right way to go.”

(Photo by Richard Heathcote/Getty Images)

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