There is nothing more boring than talking about referees. The problem is, the officials are so poor that most of us feel as though we’ve got no choice but to do so. The Professional Game Match Officials is an organisation that is run by Howard Webb, a former South Yorkshire police officer who, one might suggest, learnt at his former job that protecting your mates was more important than the truth.
It seems to be in that spirit that referees officiate matches in the Premier League, with six new faces having joined the ranks of those who officiate games for the 2025-2026 season.
Lewis Smith
In some ways, it would be untrue to refer to Lewis Smith as new to the Premier League. That is because he was added to the Development Group of referees last season, taking the middle for nine top-flight games during the campaign. His career began in 2016 when he took charge of a Premier League Under-18s Merseyside derby between Liverpool and Everton. In the three seasons that followed, he officiated youth and lower league matches to gain some experience, then made the step up to the FA Cup in the 2020-2021 season, reffing a first round match.
His progress continued in the weeks and months that followed, seeing him become the man with the whistle for a game between Watford and Stoke City in the 2022-2023 Championship campaign. He also officiated five League One matches and seven in League Two during the season. In 2023-2024, Smith officiated matches in the Championship, as well as both the FA Cup and League Cup before getting his Premier League debut in a game between Fulham and Aston Villa. It was decided that he would be added to the supplementary list for the Select Group 1 for the current campaign.
Farai Hallam
It is an oft-trottered-out line that referees ‘know the rules but don’t know the game’. That is not something that can be said of Farai Hallam, who spent three years playing football professionally in both England and Spain before deciding to hang up his boots. Rather than walk away from the game entirely, however, he decided to take up refereeing two years after he stopped playing in the wake of being released by Stevenage. He worked with the Football Association in order to earn the right to be able to take charge of matches, being put in charge of an EFL game for the first time in 2023.
Having gained his experience at the lower levels of the English Football League, Hallam was put in charge of a Championship game in the November of 2024 when he had the whistle for the match between Norwich City and Bristol City. Born in Surrey, he was essentially fast-tracked to his current position, given the fact that this is just his third season as a referee and he has been made a Development Group Referee. He was still playing games on a Saturday when he began refereeing matches on a Sunday, with many hoping that his experience in the sport will help his performances.
Adam Herczeg
If the name of Adam Herczeg is one that you recognise, that might well be because he hit the headlines back in the January of 2024. Herczeg was the referee for the match between Wigan Athletic and Wycombe Wanderers at the DW Stadium, but was involved in a nasty collision that saw him suffer a head injury when caught between two players. The match was delayed for 20 minutes as he received treatment, leading to fourth official Steven Rushton taking over as the match referee and a supporter, who was a qualified referee, had to step in to allow the League One game to be completed.
Having been refereeing since he was a 15-year-old, Herczeg joined the Development Group and took charge of a number of EFL games from the 2022-2023 campaign onwards. He enjoyed his debut as a top-flight referee in the May of this year, having been handed the fourth official role for Manchester United’s clash with West Ham United at Old Trafford. The 31-year-old has already enjoyed experience in the Championship, but this is the first season in which he will appear as the man in the middle of numerous different Premier League clashes, so it will be interesting to see how he does.
Tom Kirk
Another referee who has featured in the news is Thomas Kirk, who earned praise from Dermot Gallagher on Sky Sports’ Ref Watch back in 2024. The referee was in charge of a match between Sheffield Wednesday and Bristol City at Hillsborough when Di’Shon Bernard brought down Tommy Conway in the 76th minute. Kirk played advantage because of the position that the Owls were in, with play continuing for two and a half minutes from that point. When the ball eventually went out of play, Kirk showed Bernard a second yellow for the foul, resulting in a red card, much to everyone’s surprise.
That is because it is unusual for a referee to play on in an instance when a player is going to be sent off, but Kirk was praised for his decision-making in the wake of the full-time whistle. It might be part of the reason why the decision to promote him was taken, with the relatively inexperienced ref having already taken charge of games in the likes of the League Cup, the FA Cup and the Championship, in addition to both League One and League Two. Having started officiating when he was a 17-year-old, he has progressed through the ranks the traditional way to get where he is.
Ruebyn Ricardo
If Tom Kirk’s progress to become a referee capable of taking charge of Premier League games has been a traditional one, the same can’t really be said of Ruebyn Ricardo. It was back in 2013 when he broke his wrist when he was at school, leading to his PE teacher to suggest that he pick up a whistle and referee some of the matches played at his school. He took to it like a duck to water, progressing through the ranks in order to become a referee at the National League level in 2022. He took charge of his first match in the English Football League in the April of 2023 for a Crewe versus Swindon match.
That then put him in a position to be able to referee matches across the National League and EFL in the 2023-2024 campaign, when he officiated 24 times. He made his debut as a referee in the Championship at the start of January this year, refereeing a game between Millwall and Oxford. He also became the first referee of black heritage who was asked to take charge of the FA Vase final, having already earned the credit of being the youngest black referee to officiate an EFL game, which happened when he was just 25. He was the fourth official of a Premier League game in the May of 2025.
Ben Toner
Another referee who hit the headlines quite early on in his career, Ben Toner was due to take control of a match between Blackpool and Portsmouth at Bloomfield Road in the immediate aftermath of a high court ruling against the home side’s majority owners, the Oystons. The PGMOL decided that, in the circumstances, it made sense for a more experienced referee to be in charge of the match, with Jon Moss given the job and Toner moved to the match between Carlisle United and Yeovil Town. That was now more than seven years ago, with Toner getting much more experience since.
Born in the Lancashire town of Blackburn, Toner’s English Football League debut came in a game between York City and Burton Albion in the January of 2015. His Championship debut came in the 2022-2023 season, securing more Championship games in the wake of becoming part of the PGMOL’s Development Group. Having been refereeing since he was a 15-year-old, he got his first Wembley appearance when he took charge of the League Two play-off final between AFC Wimbledon and Walsall at the end of the 2023-2024 campaign and will officiate a Premier League match this season.
Kevin Blom
One of the appointments that Premier League fans might find the most interesting is that of Kevin Blom, a former FIFA official, who has been appointed by the PGMOL to the role of VAR Performance Coach. Given how often a decision goes to the Video Assistant Referee only for them to seemingly make completely the wrong decision, the idea of having someone on board who can teach the officials how to make the right decision, rather than the one that protects their mate, seems like good news. He is also someone who has a wealth of experience, which can only be a good thing.
Blom was not only a referee in the Eredivisie in the Netherlands, he was also one of the referees used by both UEFA and FIFA for matches in their competitions. On top of that, he has also gained a good amount of experience working as a Video Match Official in competitions such as EUROP 2020. He was awarded the Sportsman of the Year award in 2005 and named the Best Referee of the Year two years later, so this is someone who can hopefully get things right. Having previously served as the VAR Manager at the Royal Belgian Football Association, his appointment is a promising one.