Premier League ends 15-year wait for Black referee as Howard Webb delivers vow

14 December 2023 , 16:00

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Sam Allison will take charge of Sheffield United vs Luton later this month

Sam Allison will become the first Black referee in the Premier League for 15 years - and only the second ever - later this month.

The 42-year-old ex-firefighter will take charge of Sheffield United vs Luton on Boxing Day as PGMOL chief Howard Webb continues to make good on his summer pledge to diversify top flight refereeing.

Until 2020, Allison - who took up refereeing 12 years ago - was the only black match official in the top four English divisions and the first since Uriah Rennie in 2008. Of nearly 300 referees in English football the number of non-white officials in the professional game is still in single figures.

Wiltshire-based Allison was at Swindon’s school of excellence as a youngster and went on to spend most of his career playing semi-professionally at Chippenham Town.

He also represented England schoolboys numerous times. Back in August, Akil Howson became the first black, Asian, or of mixed heritage to be a permanent referee official since Rennie. But he has yet to actually take charge of a Premier League game.

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BAMRef, the Black, Asian and Mixed Heritage refereeing group - set up to identify, support and champion non-white refereeing talent - said: “We welcome this appointment. It is a further step in the right direction towards refereeing reflecting society and the playing contingent within football.

“It is also the culmination of years of hard work by BAMRef members. We hope to work with Howard Webb to identify and progress more black officials to the top flight.”

Akil Howson has worked as an assistant referee on Premier League matches this season

Earlier this year, head of referees Webb told “Our commitment is to ensure that opportunities are created to ensure that there's real diversity in the group of decision makers that I lead - and the organisation.”

On the long wait for black referee to take charge of a top-flight match, he added: “We clearly don't have the systems in place to allow talent to flourish from all parts of the community. There’s a whole list of officials and it's pretty one dimensional, that can't be right.”

Darren Lewis