RateTheRef

Premier League PAR: (Please predict the referee, fourth official and VAR – 3pm K/O unless stated)

Friday 20th March 2026

Bournemouth v Manchester United (8pm) – Attwell / Robinson / England

Saturday 21st March 2026

Brighton & Hove Albion v Liverpool (12.30pm) – Barrott / Ward / Pawson
Fulham v Burnley –  Madley / Whitestone / Jones
Everton v Chelsea (5.30pm) – Oliver / Kitchen / England
Leeds United v Brentford (8pm) – Tierney / Kirk / Gillett

Sunday 22nd March 2026

Aston Villa v West Ham United (2.15pm) –  England / Robinson / Tierney
Tottenham Hotspur v Nottingham Forest (2.15pm) – Pawson / Barrott / Harrington

Official Line: (Please predict all appointments below for this one fixture)

Newcastle United v Sunderland (Sunday, 12pm)
Referee: Kavanagh
Assistant Referee: Cook
Assistant Referee: Hussin
Fourth Official: Hallam
VAR: Salisbury
AVAR: Massey-Ellis

EFL PAR: (Please predict the referee for the following games - matches 22nd March, 3pm K/O unless stated)

Championship:

Derby County v Birmingham City (12.30pm) – L Smith
Ipswich Town v Millwall – J Smith

League One:

Cardiff City v Blackpool (12.30pm) – Ricardo
Wigan Athletic v Exeter City – Yates

League Two:

Bromley v Colchester United (12.30pm) – Eley
Oldham Athletic v Harrogate Town – Howard

The Randomiser:

Please predict an official who will be an answer to the following questions

1) Who will caution a goalkeeper?  England

2) How many SG1 referees will be appointed as an AVAR? 3

3) How many matches will see the purple kit be worn in the Premier League? 2

Happy with the appointments for both Norwich games

Not sure anyone can be happy with Ward. Had the same fixture last Feb 25 and was poor.

Premier League PAR: (Please predict the referee, fourth official and VAR – 3pm K/O unless stated)

Saturday 14th March 2026

Sunderland v Brighton & Hove Albion – England / Barrott / Jones
Arsenal v Everton (5.30pm) – Taylor / Robinson / Tierney
Chelsea v Newcastle United (5.30pm) – Pawson / Martin / Salisbury
West Ham United v Manchester City (8pm) – Oliver / Gillett / Chilowicz

Sunday 15th March 2026

Crystal Palace v Leeds United (2pm) – Robinson / Ward / Gillett
Manchester United v Aston Villa (2pm) –  Madley / Kitchen / Attwell
Nottingham Forest v Fulham (2pm) – Kavanagh / J Smith / Pawson
Liverpool v Tottenham Hotspur (4.30pm) – Barrott / Bramall / England

Monday 16th March 2026

Brentford v Wolverhampton Wanderers (8pm) – Bankes / Pawson / Brooks

Official Line: (Please predict all appointments below for this one fixture)

Burnley v Bournemouth (Saturday, 3pm)
Referee: Attwell
Assistant Referee: Ledger
Assistant Referee: Howson
Fourth Official: Kavanagh
VAR: Bankes
AVAR: Robathan

]EFL PAR:(Please predict the referee for the following games - matches 14th March, 3pm K/O unless stated)

Championship:

Coventry City v Southampton (12.30pm) – Doughty
Norwich City v Preston North End – Ward

League One:

Mansfield Town v Barnsley – Corlett
Stevenage v AFC Wimbledon – Bourne

League Two:

Notts County v Chesterfield (12.30pm) – E Bell
Shrewsbury Town v Cheltenham Town – Mackey

The Randomiser:

Please predict an official who will be an answer to the following questions

1) Who will be appointed assistant referee in the League Two?? Fyvie

2) Who will oversee a game with a winning margin of 3 goals or more?? Allison

3) Name a referee who will issue a red card in 2nd half? Breakspear

Quote from: Marvin Grapevine on Fri 06 Mar 2026 10:04

Quote from: El Referee on Thu 05 Mar 2026 18:47

Quote from: Marvin Grapevine on Thu 05 Mar 2026 15:07

This again underlines my frustration with VAR. 9 times out of 10 it's given as a penalty, and VAR backs up the decision. This time, the ref doesn't give it and, predictably, VAR backs up the decision.

Again, VAR is just a mess, and the inherent inconsistency on subjective decisions means it can never work.

I hate VAR more than the next person. Maybe even more. But you have to remember why VAR is there; Clear & Obvious errors.

I completely agree that there are some C&O errors that they don’t get involved in, and others in which they get involved when it isn’t. But for me, this one is definitely one I wouldn’t want VAR getting involved in. As much as Sels definitely makes contact with Haaland, I’m not fully convinced that the movement of his right leg wasn’t done to ensure contact is made

Ps…..also really don’t rate Darren England!

But my issue with this is that you've seen very similar - and much clearer - situations where the attacker has either not avoided contact, or actually initiated it, and the VAR has stuck with the penalty decision.

I go back to Max Dowman, who literally chucked his leg out to kick the Leeds defender. It was a dive. It was cheating. Yet the penalty was upheld. Same with Bogle of Leeds the other week. He drags his left foot to make the contact, yet VAR cleared it as a penalty within about 5 seconds. The inconsistency is infuriating, and the reality is we would all disagree at certain points as to what is and isn't a penalty.

If I think of 4 incidents that I have off the top of my head at the moment, Haaland, Dowman, Bogle and James (from the Villa v Chelsea game) I'd argue the two that weren't given as penalties (Haaland, James) were much more clear fouls than Bogle and, in particular, Dowman. So VAR isn't correcting minor errors, and indeed is missing major ones quite routinely, whilst also meaning that the inconsistency is baked in because they will try to support the on field decision wherever possible. It's a circle that can't be squared, and football would be so much better without it for these subjective decisions.

I don't necessarily disagree. But I come back to the key phrase; Clear & Obvious.

I can't think of the other examples that you give off the top of my head, but the Haaland one was not one I looked at and basically winced because I thought it was clearly wrong. For me, it was an 'I've seen them given'.

And this is where VAR really falls down. The whole point of it was to make sure things like the Henry handball, Mendes & Lampard 'goals' can't happen again. The problem is that it morphed into micromanaging things, and had completely changed everyones expectations and perspective of VAR.

If I had it my way, we'd either bin it entirely or bring in a challenge based system. The current system just doesn't work.

I think all we want is it to stop the Henry handball, not look at every decision.

I do worry about a challenge system, when if you give teams 2 challenges and they haven't used them, in the last 10 minutes they will make frivolous appeals just wasting time like they do in cricket.

Despite some of the failings of the SG2 officials give me the Championship any day.

Not impressed with England, never seems to have a good game when I've seen him. Not that it's going to matter.

Participants still remaining:
carrowman
TA_Ref
Badger
mbj44

PAR Cup Round 5

Please name the eight referees who will be named as referee in the fifth round of the FA Cup.
- Gillett
- Attwell
- Bankes
- Bramall
- A Madley
- Robinson
- England
- Barrott

Please name ten assistant referees who will be named as an assistant referee in the fifth round of the FA Cup.
- Davies
- Meredith
- Hatzidakis
- C Taylor
- Antrobus
- Smart
- W Smith
- Wood
- Nunn
- Burt

Please name four referees who will be named as fourth official in the fifth round of the FA Cup.
- Taylor
- Kirk
- Pawson
- Kavanagh

Please name the referee to take charge of the following fixtures.
Wrexham v Chelsea - Bankes
Mansfield v Arsenal - Bramall
Leeds v Norwich - Robinson

How many in total non SG1 referees & assistants will feature in the fifth round appointments? 2

Which referee will be appointed to a game with more than 5 goals scored, (excluding goals scored in a penalty shootout) None

How many of the 11 remaining PL teams will be refereed by a non SG1 referee? (An all PL team tie refereed by an non SG1 referee would be counted twice, once for each PL team involved, so maximum is still 11) 1

Tiebreaker
How many goals will be scored across the 5th Round FA Cup? (including extra time but excluding penalty shootouts) 27

Reserve Tiebreaker
How many Red Cards will be shown across the 5th Round FA Cup? 2

Matchweek 28

Premier League PAR: (Please predict the referee, fourth official and VAR – 3pm K/O unless stated)

Friday 27th February 2026

Wolverhampton Wanderers v Aston Villa (8pm) – Attwell / England / Pawson

Saturday 28th February 2026

Bournemouth v Sunderland (12.30pm) – Hallam / J Smith / Tierney
Burnley v Brentford – Kavanagh / Webb / Chilowicz
Liverpool v West Ham United – Oliver / J Bell / Salisbury
Newcastle United v Everton – Brooks / Barrott / England

Sunday 1st March 2026

Brighton & Hove Albion v Nottingham Forest (2pm) – Madley / England / Harrington
Fulham v Tottenham Hotspur (2pm) – Robinson / Linington / Attwell
Manchester United v Crystal Palace (2pm) – Tierney / Gillett / Madley
Arsenal v Chelsea (4.30pm) –  Pawson / Oliver / Brooks

Official Line: (Please predict all appointments below for this one fixture)

Leeds United v Manchester City (Saturday, 5.30pm)
Referee: Taylor
Assistant Referee: Beswick
Assistant Referee: Nunn
Fourth Official: Bankes
VAR: Gillett
AVAR: Hopton

EFL PAR:(Please predict the referee for the following games - matches 28th February, 3pm K/O unless stated)

Championship:

Bristol City v Watford (Friday, 8pm) – Ward
Birmingham City v Middlesbrough (Monday, 8pm) – Kirk

League One:

Port Vale v Luton Town – Kennard-Kettle
Wycombe Wanderers v Burton Albion – Duckworth

League Two:

Crewe Alexandra v Tranmere Rovers – Young
Fleetwood Town v Newport County –R Massey-Ellis

The Randomiser (Please predict an official who will be an answer to the following questions over match week 28)

1) Who will be appointed as a fourth official in the Championship? Linington

2) Who will receive more than one appointment over game week 28? Tierney

3) Who will be appointed as a AVAR? Robathan
 


Matchweek 29

Premier League PAR:(Please predict the referee, fourth official and VAR – 7.30pm K/O unless stated)

Tuesday 3rd March 2026

Bournemouth v Brentford – Attwell / Robinson / Tierney
Everton v Burnley – Barrott / Taylor / Madley
Leeds United v Sunderland – Pawson / Gillett / Jones
Wolverhampton Wanderers v Liverpool (8.15pm) – Bramall / Kavanagh / England

Wednesday 4th March 2026

Aston Villa v Chelsea –  Tierney / Hallam / Brooks
Brighton & Hove Albion v Arsenal – England / Barrott / Kavanagh
Fulham v West Ham United – L Smith / Ricardo / Harrington
Manchester City v Nottingham Forest – Gillett / Kavanagh / Hooper
Newcastle United v Manchester United (8.15pm) – Bankes / Kitchen / Attwell

Thursday 5th March 2026

Tottenham Hotspur v Crystal Palace (8pm) – Madley / Attwell / Salisbury

Official Line: (Please predict all appointments below for this one fixture)

Wolverhampton Wanderers v Arsenal (Wednesday 18th Feb, 8pm)
Referee: A Madley
Assistant Referee: Cook
Assistant Referee: C Taylor
Fourth Official: Bramall
VAR: Bankes
AVAR: Robathan