Jarred Gillett will become the first Premier League referee from outside the UK and Ireland.
The Australian will take charge of Watford against Newcastle at Vicarage Road on Saturday for his first top-flight match in English football.
Gillett has spent two years officiating in the Championship, including in the playoff semi-final between Brentford and Bournemouth in May. He previously spent nine years in his native country’s A-League alongside studying a PhD in biomechanics, before moving to Liverpool to work at John Moores University conducting post-doctoral research on children with cerebral palsy.
He is now part of the Select Group 1 of referees having been appointed ahead of the start of the season by the Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) – though he is not the first overseas referee to receive that honour; that title belongs to Dermot Gallagher, who was born in Ringsend in County Dublin.
Gillett meanwhile, 34, won widespread acclaim for his approach when his final A-League match, Melbourne Victory’s 2-1 win over Brisbane Roar, saw him wearing a microphone, allowing the processes behind his decisions and his conversations with players to be heard by viewers.
Gillett was named A-League referee of the year five times and has been a Fifa official since 2013.
The Premier League’s biggest controversies this season
Gillett will be thrust into a Premier League where referees have been under additional scrutiny this season following a shift in emphasis to encourage greater leniency on fouls and allow games to flow more freely.
Their cause has not been helped by a wave of managerial discontent as officials attempt to get to grips with the new guidelines. Jurgen Klopp slammed the new thresholds and blasted fouls from Ashley Barnes and Chris Wood as “dangerous” in Liverpool’s victory over Burnley, before Ole Gunnar Solskjaer accused the whole game of turning into rugby.
Anthony Taylor, meanwhile, was the victim of a petition – signed by close to 80,000 Chelsea fans – calling for him to be banned from their games after sending off Reece James for a handball against Liverpool.
Since then, Pascal Struijk received the most high-profile red card of the season for the challenge which dislocated Liverpool youngster Harvey Elliott’s ankle. Leeds unsuccessfully appealed, though Elliott himself suggested it was the wrong decision to dismiss Struijk.
This weekend’s fixtures also saw a number of decisions contested, notably Cristiano Ronaldo’s penalty appeals against West Ham – and one of the Hammers’ own after Vladimir Coufal was felled by Aaron Wan-Bissaka inside the box.
In Manchester City’s draw with Southampton, the Saints were initially awarded a penalty and Kyle Walker was sent off, before both calls were overturned by VAR.
from Football – inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/3oebxhM
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