If you are a regular viewer of the Premier League, then you are likely familiar with Anthony Taylor.
Born in Wythenshawe, Manchester, he worked his way up to the Premier League after starting out in the Northern Premier League — English football’s seventh tier.
Since February 2010 when he took charge of a game between Portsmouth and Fulham, Taylor has officiated 371 Premier League matches and counting.
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It was in 2013 when Taylor, now 45, became FIFA-listed, meaning he could referee at international level. In 2015-16, he became a UEFA Champions League referee and has gone on to take charge of several major and domestic finals. At the end of the 2020-21 season, he took charge of the UEFA Super Cup and Nations League finals and later the Europa League and Club World Cup (both 2022-23) finals.
In 2020, he became the first referee since 1901 to referee two FA Cup finals when he was in the middle for Arsenal’s 2-1 win over Chelsea. The fixture and result was a repeat of the 2017 showpiece when Taylor officiated his first FA Cup final.
Officials are traditionally only appointed to one FA Cup final during their career but it was deemed necessary to make an exception in 2020 as the match was held behind closed doors due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The FA Referees’ Committee said it would be unfair for the 2020 fixture to be an individual’s only experience taking charge of an FA Cup final as it would have denied them the “opportunity to share this – the English refereeing pinnacle – with partners, family, friends and those who have been an important part of their long journey”.
Taylor’s first game at this summer’s European Championship is one of the group stage’s biggest fixtures, as World Cup runners-up France take on the Netherlands in Leipzig on Friday night.
Taylor, though, has been at the centre of a fair share of controversies this season.
In April, he denied Liverpool’s Cody Gakpo a goalscoring opportunity by blowing his whistle when the ball was in play. Gakpo had looked poised to score for Liverpool at the end of their 2-2 draw with West Ham United in April before Taylor stopped him in his tracks. Taylor had hurried West Ham goalkeeper Alphonse Areola, who then threw the ball in front of himself before Gakpo pounced, but before the Dutchman had the chance to shoot Taylor bizarrely blew his whistle.
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Ian Wright was among those to call out the decision which baffled many. “The referee has had an absolute nightmare,” Wright said speaking on BBC’s Match of the Day.
This came just a week after Taylor had been in charge of Nottingham Forest’s 2-0 defeat by Everton at Goodison Park when the East Midlands team felt hard done by three penalty claims which Taylor waved away. That led Forest to put out a now-infamous tweet about the officiating performance of Taylor and Video Assistant Referee (VAR) Stuart Atwell.
Three extremely poor decisions – three penalties not given – which we simply cannot accept.
We warned the PGMOL that the VAR is a Luton fan before the game but they didn’t change him. Our patience has been tested multiple times.
NFFC will now consider its options.
— Nottingham Forest (@NFFC) April 21, 2024
Earlier in the season, Taylor’s decision to award Newcastle United a penalty against Wolves was deemed “scandalous” by head coach Gary O’Neil.
When attempting to clear the ball during the November clash, Wolves’ Hwang Hee-chan brought down Fabian Schar and Taylor pointed to the spot with his decision also backed up by VAR. The decision was widely considered as the incorrect call and saw Taylor moved to the Championship for his next game. Premier League referees’ chief Howard Webb issued guidance to VAR officials to be more proactive in challenging their on-field colleagues if they feel a major error has been made following the Wolves incident.
(Top photo: Alex Grimm/Getty Images)