institutionalised racism often takes subtle forms and we can't rule out its existence within refereeing. There may not be overt discrimination or hostility but BAME referees may find that they are not welcomed into the same networks as white officials. Often links of these kinds are very important in influencing promotion and retention. This is unlikely to be any formal type of "rejection" but more that the networks within refereeing are more likely to reach out to white referees. It's also possible that when decisions on promotion are made decision-makers have unconscious stereotypes of who "fits the bill" and white referees fit more within that stereotype. The existence of such stereotypes though is hard to prove an decision-makers may be quite unaware of them. Stereotypes of this kind may also work against female and gay referees and others as well.