Uriah Rennie - Can't believe it's been 15 years!

[Tony Currie]

Sam Allison is the first black referee in the Premier League since Uriah Rennie back in 2008. He will officiate the at Bramall Lane for Sheffield United v Luton match on Boxing day.

My memories of Uriah Rennie (Sheffield born) where that he was firm but fair, no managers ever complained about him pre match.

Does make you question the Premier league - why did it take so bloody long!

 

[I should coco]

Sam Allison is the first black referee in the Premier League since Uriah Rennie back in 2008. He will officiate the at Bramall Lane for Sheffield United v Luton match on Boxing day.

My memories of Uriah Rennie (Sheffield born) where that he was firm but fair, no managers ever complained about him pre match.

Does make you question the Premier league - why did it take so bloody long!

It's not the Premier League, it's PGMOL, if anyone's is to blame.

I'd hazard that there aren't many black refs in the system, coming through. The smaller the pool, the less likely you will get the required quality to pick from. Positive discrimination is one thing, but promoting somebody who might be way below the required standard, will only end in tears.

To be honest, I've no idea why anyone would want to ref (black/white/female/LGBQABCXYZ) would want to ref in the first place and longer term, it could be an issue to get quality refs of any type.

 

[DifferentClass]

Uriah's a Blade

 

[Selly]

promoting somebody who might be way below the required standard, will only end in tears.

Doesn`t seem to stop them for the current crop of refs. White, black, pink or blue.

 

[dexter101]

Get AI to be the referee, it won't care if giant norwegians shout in its face and people won't be able to say its biased. Referees are now on a hiding to nothing. back in the day, people would take the rough with the smooth as long as across a match it felt fairly refereed.

 

[LBA_Blade]

Get AI to be the referee, it won't care if giant norwegians shout in its face and people won't be able to say its biased. Referees are now on a hiding to nothing. back in the day, people would take the rough with the smooth as long as across a match it felt fairly refereed.

The problem is TV but also that is where the money comes from. Referees are only human so bound to make "mistakes" or not see something because of positioning. I like to go on occasion as a neutral to a non league game and you don't have you're blade tinted specs on, the 30,000 hostile fans etc. It gives you a better perspective.

When the TV goes in super slow mo and you have a player who played the game in the 90's saying "looking at this freeze frame slow mo, he has clearly caught him, I don't know how he has missed it "etc. only adds heat to the fire. To be fair the more tech we add to football AI will be developed more and more. I can see that being used for most things, assistant referees will become redundant

 

[Chief]

Doesn`t seem to stop them for the current crop of refs. White, black, pink or blue.

To be fair to the refs, who I myself think are pretty much all shite, this is part of the point isn't it?

They're fighting a losing battle the second they walk onto the pitch as PGMOL seem to have trained them all to ruin a game football and neglect any common sense in the process.

Every mistake is then posted all over social media, covered daily on Sky Sports' Ref Watch etc and criticised at a microscopic level by millions of people through the week.

As a result they get the absolute dog's abuse. Then everyone hates the refs and you've got 30k+ people giving it to them relentlessly during games. Then mistakes get made under the pressure, then you're all over the media again and you're into a vicious cycle.

I don't understand why anyone gets into reffing to be honest, but I certainly wouldn't fancy being from a minority background and leaving myself open to the spotlight even more so, and with the potential racial abuse added to the mix.

...and all that is just the 'elite' refs, you've probably got years of grass roots level abuse to get through first!

 

[Whiston Blade]

Sam Allison is the first black referee in the Premier League since Uriah Rennie back in 2008. He will officiate the at Bramall Lane for Sheffield United v Luton match on Boxing day.

My memories of Uriah Rennie (Sheffield born) where that he was firm but fair, no managers ever complained about him pre match.

Does make you question the Premier league - why did it take so bloody long!

Maybe Sam has been the only one who's showed he's capable of doing it at the top level..?

 

[dexter101]

To be fair to the refs, who I myself think are pretty much all shite, this is part of the point isn't it?

They're fighting a losing battle the second they walk onto the pitch as PGMOL seem to have trained them all to ruin a game football and neglect any common sense in the process.

Every mistake is then posted all over social media, covered daily on Sky Sports' Ref Watch etc and criticised at a microscopic level by millions of people through the week.

As a result they get the absolute dog's abuse. Then everyone hates the refs and you've got 30k+ people giving it to them relentlessly during games. Then mistakes get made under the pressure, then you're all over the media again and you're into a vicious cycle.

I don't understand why anyone gets into reffing to be honest, but I certainly wouldn't fancy being from a minority background and leaving myself open to the spotlight even more so, and with the potential racial abuse added to the mix.

...and all that is just the 'elite' refs, you've probably got years of grass roots level abuse to get through first!

Definitely.

I watch a lot of Rugby (league and union) and it was always much better, however I think the more video analysis the more they are coming in for so much more flack.

The old fashioned way was the referee has ultimate control and you don't question them, now that has gone.

 

[Edgar Allan Poo]

Sam Allison is the first black referee in the Premier League since Uriah Rennie back in 2008. He will officiate the at Bramall Lane for Sheffield United v Luton match on Boxing day.

My memories of Uriah Rennie (Sheffield born) where that he was firm but fair, no managers ever complained about him pre match.

Does make you question the Premier league - why did it take so bloody long!

Firm but fair, the way I like my women or at least the way I would like them if any were interested.

 

[Greasy Chap Butty]

Some people will be belly aching about this.

 

[Snake]

Spot on bloke is Uriah. A Wybourn and Hurlfield School lad. Excelled at anything that involved a bat/racquet. It must have been very difficult for a black family to grow up on a council estate back in the 60/70s...... the days of 'Love Thy Neighbour' and 'Till Death us do Part' etc. He probably has his own personal stories of course, but I can never remember him getting any hassle as a kid - he was always accepted/included. Which is of course the way it should be.

 

[Eza Blade]

Uriah once reffed one of my games when I was a lad. He was on it all game and I mentioned to him that the match wasn’t all about him…..he smiled and said “oh yes it is”

He blew for fucking everything after that

 

[ISZA ⚔️]

I won’t rest easy until we have a Chinese fourth official.

 

[BladesOnToast]

Pondering whether this does show underrepresentation (and associated discrimination)...

According to Wikipedia, there have been 73 refs who have refereed in the Prem, but I'd guess it's more like 100.
(The wikipedia list is not complete, i can think of quite a few not on there. Also there are typically about 20 refs per season who referee games in the Prem, so over its 21-year lifetime that's 620 referee-years, so with the assumption of 100 refs that gives an average time at the top of 6 years per ref, so 100 probably is fairly accurate).

Around 5% of British people are black so if up til now only 1 out of 100 prem referees are black, that's underrepresentation, though the sample size is pretty tiny.

However, considering 20% of British people are non-white, that could be seen as a significant underrepresentation of ethnic minority groups overall (not just black people), assuming the other 98 Prem refs are all white, which I don't know.

Another thing to consider is that black people are significantly over-represented playing football at an elite level - 43% of prem players are black, and 34% of EPL players are. So you might expect there to be more black referees based on that.... on the other hand, pro players almost never become pro referees so maybe it's irrelevant.

 

[Russ]

Good luck to him, I hope he has a good game.
He can’t be any worse than some of the others.

 

[Snowflake]

Maybe Sam has been the only one who's showed he's capable of doing it at the top level..?

He is an ex pro footballer so maybe we need more of them who understand the game

 

[Torrix1889]

I can honestly say i had never really noticed that there hadn't been a black ref since Rennie

 

[JJ Sefton]

Thought he’d died when I saw the title.

 

[Montymagic]

It's not the Premier League, it's PGMOL, if anyone's is to blame.

I'd hazard that there aren't many black refs in the system, coming through. The smaller the pool, the less likely you will get the required quality to pick from. Positive discrimination is one thing, but promoting somebody who might be way below the required standard, will only end in tears.

To be honest, I've no idea why anyone would want to ref (black/white/female/LGBQABCXYZ) would want to ref in the first place and longer term, it could be an issue to get quality refs of any type.

God forbid we promote refs who are below standard, can you imagine a game with shit refs...... unthinkable.....

A dead donkey could do a better job than 100% of ' professional ' refs at the moment.

 

[jim2007]

Uriah's a Blade

Was spotted on the Kop earlier this season.

 

[PeterNdlovu081]

Does make you question the Premier league - why did it take so bloody long!

Question them about what?

What's it got to do with the Premier League?

 

[Gin&Juice]

Who would want to be a ref nowadays? 16 year old kids getting started on by grown adults, constant vilification. It’s a thankless job. We grew up with them as disciplinarians, who commanded respect.

 

[Zipwire]

Spot on bloke is Uriah. A Wybourn and Hurlfield School lad. Excelled at anything that involved a bat/racquet. It must have been very difficult for a black family to grow up on a council estate back in the 60/70s...... the days of 'Love Thy Neighbour' and 'Till Death us do Part' etc. He probably has his own personal stories of course, but I can never remember him getting any hassle as a kid - he was always accepted/included. Which is of course the way it should be.

I fully agree with that, I’ve met and spoke to Uriah Rennie loads at Hillsborough gym and a nicer bloke you wouldn’t ever want to meet. The most surprising thing about him is that to say he has reffed at the highest level, and is a black belt in martial arts is how softly spoken he is.

He is getting on a bit but he puts a lot of the young uns to shame with the amount of work he puts in whilst in the gym

 

[Tezza1889]

Get AI to be the referee, it won't care if giant norwegians shout in its face and people won't be able to say its biased. Referees are now on a hiding to nothing. back in the day, people would take the rough with the smooth as long as across a match it felt fairly refereed.

And they're calling the AI referee over to the pitch side monitor!

 

[Yoonited]

Sam Allison is the first black referee in the Premier League since Uriah Rennie back in 2008. He will officiate the at Bramall Lane for Sheffield United v Luton match on Boxing day.

My memories of Uriah Rennie (Sheffield born) where that he was firm but fair, no managers ever complained about him pre match.

Does make you question the Premier league - why did it take so bloody

Spot on bloke is Uriah. A Wybourn and Hurlfield School lad. Excelled at anything that involved a bat/racquet. It must have been very difficult for a black family to grow up on a council estate back in the 60/70s...... the days of 'Love Thy Neighbour' and 'Till Death us do Part' etc. He probably has his own personal stories of course, but I can never remember him getting any hassle as a kid - he was always accepted/included. Which is of course the way it should be.

Were you at Hurlfield with him Snake,if so what year

 

[knowsnowt]

Grew up with Uriah. He lived across road from me.

 

[Bell4]

Sam Allison is the first black referee in the Premier League since Uriah Rennie back in 2008. He will officiate the at Bramall Lane for Sheffield United v Luton match on Boxing day.

My memories of Uriah Rennie (Sheffield born) where that he was firm but fair, no managers ever complained about him pre match.

Does make you question the Premier league - why did it take so bloody long!

Prob cos there hasn’t been any black refs who were good enough

Ffs

 

[Boxer Blade]

I played cricket with Uri, typical West Indian fast bowler, his run up was about 100 yards! I was captain when he played with us in the Derbyshire league, brilliant lad .

 

[CornwallBlade]

Pondering whether this does show underrepresentation (and associated discrimination)...

According to Wikipedia, there have been 73 refs who have refereed in the Prem, but I'd guess it's more like 100.
(The wikipedia list is not complete, i can think of quite a few not on there. Also there are typically about 20 refs per season who referee games in the Prem, so over its 21-year lifetime that's 620 referee-years, so with the assumption of 100 refs that gives an average time at the top of 6 years per ref, so 100 probably is fairly accurate).

Around 5% of British people are black so if up til now only 1 out of 100 prem referees are black, that's underrepresentation, though the sample size is pretty tiny.

However, considering 20% of British people are non-white, that could be seen as a significant underrepresentation of ethnic minority groups overall (not just black people), assuming the other 98 Prem refs are all white, which I don't know.

Another thing to consider is that black people are significantly over-represented playing football at an elite level - 43% of prem players are black, and 34% of EPL players are. So you might expect there to be more black referees based on that.... on the other hand, pro players almost never become pro referees so maybe it's irrelevant.

Solid argument but the relevant number will be the proportion of non-white referees at grass roots. You can extrapolate to the PL from that rather than % of the population. I don’t know what the numbers are but I suspect they will be very low sadly. I’m a qualified hockey umpire and in that sport, if any player got gobby they were straight off the pitch. Captains could be sin binned for failing to control their players and were also responsible for people on the touch line. It was a walk in the park compared to footy. I ran the touchline for an U14 match my son played in and received so much abuse from players, coaching staff and parents I refused ever to do it again. Lord knows why anyone would want to be a football referee.