(Football news) History is about to be made when Australian referee Jarred Gillett officiates this weekend’s Premier League clash between Watford vs Newcastle on Saturday. The 34 year old moved to England in 2019, having spent nine years in the A-League and has been refereeing the EFL in the last two seasons.
Ahead of the start of the current season, Gillett was promoted to the Select Group 1 of referees by Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL). He has officiated the League One, League Two and the Championship over the last two seasons including the play-off between Brentford and Bournemouth and also has experience in the Premier League as a Video Assistant Referee.
The move comes as a welcome initiative by the Premier League in a season that has already seen many controversial decisions take place. Last week, Manchester United’s Cristiano Ronaldo was refused two penalty decisions, out of which at least one was incorrectly not given. With the first of hopefully many overseas referees, there is hope that the overall standard of refereeing in the Premier League will improve based on merit based appointments irrespective of nationality.
The Premier League is already the most entertaining, fast paced, lucrative and competitive league in the world and with an improvement in the standard of referees, it undoubtedly has the potential to become the undisputed best in the world.
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