Professional Game Match Officials Board

The Professional Game Match Officials Board (PGMOB), and since made a Limited Liability Company (PGMOL, or Professional Game Match Officials Limited), was formed when English association football referees turned professional in 2001, specifically to provide match officials for all games played in the Premier League, Football League & FA Competitions in England.

The Board consists of the three governing bodies' Chief Executives and Referees Managers in addition to The FA's Head of Refereeing. They are tasked with the responsibility of developing excellence in officiating in the English game at professional level.

The Select Group Referees, primarily officiate in the Premier League, Football League Cup & FA Cup and will also occasionally referee in the Football League[1]

Staff

Name Job Title
Neale Barry FA Head of Senior Referee Development
Mike Riley PGMOB General Manager
Adam Watts Select Group Referee Manager
David Allison National List Referee Manager
Richard Beeby National List - Head of Performance
Simon Breivik Head of Sports Science
Adam Kerr Sports Scientist
Chris Foy Referee Coach
Alan Wiley Referee Coach
Steve Dunn Referee Coach
Alan Wilkie Select Group Referee Evaluator

ProZone

The top-flight referees are continually monitored at games and attend fortnightly meetings in which, amongst other matters, their performances, via the use of ProZone, are evaluated.

Fitness

The Select Group Referees meet twice per month for training sessions and analysis of match videos.

The PGMOB have their own sports scientists, sports psychologists, physiotherapists, sprint coaches, podiatrists and vision scientists which mirror football clubs to help improve referee performance.

All training sessions and games are carefully scrutinised thanks to the aid of Polar Heart Monitors.

Assessment

Every PGMOB referee is evaluated by a former senior referee to measure their technical performance, along with fellow players and managers (match delegates) who assess accuracy and consistency of their decision making and management of their game.

Sponsorship

The PGMOB changed its sponsorship for the 2010/11 season from Air Asia to its parent group, 'Tune Group'.

For the 2012/13 season Expedia sponsored the officials. [2] however this agreement only lasted a year.

For the start of the 2013-14 Premier League season PGMO had no sponsor, however part way through the season EA Sports signed a long term agreement which will see their logo on the arms of all officials in the Premier League and Football League until 2019. [3]

Controversy

PGMOL is regularly described as a secretive organisation and subject to heavy criticism for the way it organises the game in England without ever being accountable for its actions. At the beginning of the 2015-2016 season, FIFA intervened to ask English referees to learn the offside rule following a review showing it as applied inconsistently in the premier league and was not understood by PGMOL members. The organisation is also criticised for the limited number of referees, their poor rating by UEFA and FIFA and the lack of rotation resulting in some referees refereeing certain teams more than their fair share.

Current head of PGMOL Mike Riley was himself subject to significant controversy when a referee being regularly accused of favouring Manchester United. His predecessor Hackett was at the opposite accused of bias by Sir Alex Ferguson and subsequently removed from Manchester United matches following the comments from the Man U manager.


For the May 2016 Chelsea - Tottenham match, the referee was changed because of his residence in Leicestershire. The following week Anthony Taylor, a greater Manchester resident, was appointed to referee the Man City - Arsenal match.


On 2 January 2014, Southampton F.C. made an official complaint and demanded an apology after accusing Mark Clattenburg of making an insulting remark to their midfielder Adam Lallana during their 2-1 defeat to Everton on 29 December 2013. The incident is alleged to have happened after Southampton had two penalty appeals turned down. Clattenburg is alleged to have said to Lallana: "You are very different now, since you've played for England – you never used to be like this."[4] Despite the complaint being dismissed by the PGMOB,[5] Southampton released a statement saying that they did not accept the verdict as the behaviour was "clearly not acceptable", and that it would not be "appropriate" for Clattenburg to referee any future Southampton matches until the matter was resolved.[6] On 6 January, the FA released a statement confirming that they had turned down Southampton's request to continue investigating Clattenburg and that the case was closed.[7] Various media outlets reported that Southampton wanted a new independent panel to judge all future complaints rather than the PGMOB.[8][9][10]

References

  1. ↑ http://www.premierleague.com/content/premierleague/en-gb/referees/about-pgmol.html
  2. ↑ http://inside.expedia.co.uk/press-centre/expedia-signs-official-sponsor-professional-referees-and-match-officials-242
  3. ↑ http://www.premierleague.com/en-gb/news/news/2013-14/jan/pgmol-ea-sports-sign-long-term-partnership/
  4. ↑ "Southampton make official complaint after accusing referee Mark Clattenburg of insulting Adam Lallana". Daily Telegraph. 2 January 2014. Retrieved 3 January 2014.
  5. ↑ "Southampton's Mark Clattenburg complaint is dismissed". BBC. 3 January 2014. Retrieved 3 January 2014.
  6. ↑ "Southampton do not accept the PGMOL decision to clear Mark Clattenburg Earlier versions of this page in Wikipedia contained references and links to various web sites which have openly criticised PGMOL in relation to the way that they have organised refereeing in the Premier League. Although the articles remain in place these additional remarks and the links have been removed by parties unknown.". Sky Sports. 3 January 2014. Retrieved 3 January 2014. line feed character in |title= at position 72 (help)
  7. ↑ "Southampton do not accept the PGMOL decision to clear Mark Clattenburg". The FA Official Website. 6 January 2014. Retrieved 7 January 2014.
  8. ↑ "Mark Clattenburg cleared by FA of misconduct - but Southampton expected to stick to their guns over comments made to Adam Lallana". The Independent. 6 January 2014. Retrieved 7 January 2014.
  9. ↑ "Football Association turn down request to investigate Mark Clattenburg over Adam Lallana comments". The Telegraph. 6 January 2014. Retrieved 7 January 2014.
  10. ↑ "Southampton complaint dismissed by FA". BBC. 6 January 2014. Retrieved 7 January 2014.
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