FA to recruit and retain 1,000 new referees from diverse backgrounds in next three years
The FA will unveil ambitious new plans to recruit and retain 1,000 new referees from diverse backgrounds in the next three years, Sky Sports News can exclusively reveal, in the hope of drastically changing the culture of grassroots football.
The landmark new FA strategy will be launched tomorrow, with the aim of encouraging more people from under-represented communities to consider getting involved in football, and refereeing.
Whilst the Professional Game Match Officials Ltd (PGMOL) organises referees and assistants at the elite level, it is nonetheless supportive of this new FA initiative, in the hope that more black and South Asian referees will make it into the professional game in future.
Sam Allison is currently the highest-ranked black referee in the professional game, working in the EFL. He linked up with the highest-ranked referee from Britain’s South Asian community, Sunny Singh Gill, to preside over Swindon Town’s Easter Monday clash with Leyton Orient towards the end of the 2021/22 season.
Sunny’s father, Jarnail Singh, is the first turbaned Sikh referee in the history of English league football and took charge of more than 150 games across the divisions between 2004 and 2010.
Speaking exclusively to Sky Sports News in April 2021, former World Cup final referee Howard Webb, who is now PGMOL chief refereeing officer said the Singh Gill brothers must aim for the Premier League.
“I think both Sunny and Bhups need to be aiming for the Premier League and then beyond that the FIFA international panel,” Webb told Sky Sports News.
“It’s not going to happen to everybody, but it is going to happen to some and why shouldn’t it happen to these guys?
“They’ve already shown that they’re talented. And I’m sure they’ll keep working at their game.”
British South Asians in Football
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