Graham Scott: From being chased by Jose Mourinho to becoming referee columnist for The Athletic

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I have been chased across the pitch by Wayne Rooney and around the technical area by Jose Mourinho. I’ve fallen out with Harry Kane (repeatedly), had Jurgen Klopp scream in my face and united a stadium of 60,000 people in the opinion that I had no idea what I was doing. As fourth official, I had to persuade Mikel Arteta to stay in his technical area, tried to keep the peace between Klopp and Pep Guardiola in a title-decider, and fielded demands from Arsene Wenger to play more added time in a cup final that Arsenal were losing 3-0. Despite sitting in the video assistant referee (VAR) chair more than 100 times, I never did discover what the phrase “clear and obvious error” really means, but did establish that job is thankless and impossible in equal measure. Praise is rare for officials. Every game is played away from home, the atmosphere always feels hostile and the wild-west of social media means the anger and loathing persist long after a match has ended. I was a Premier League referee for a decade and took the field at every stadium, from Old Trafford to the Emirates, and Stamford Bridge to the Etihad. They are intense battlefields, with matches played at a pace and intensity that is never truly conveyed by TV cameras filming from high in the stands. My role in this unscripted drama was to strike a balance between applying laws with a modicum of consistency and fairness, while simultaneously allowing the play to flow by resisting the temptation to penalise every potential foul. I have given Rooney his 100th yellow card in the league for an eye-watering challenge on Dele Alli, watched in awe as Kevin De Bruyne passed to team-mates with breathtaking accuracy, and failed to keep pace with Son Heung-min. The use of video technology has increased the scrutiny, even though it was never sold as a panacea to the issue of refereeing misjudgments. People demand consistent application of laws that are riddled with subjective anomalies, then bemoan a lack of common sense whenever an official dares to interpret a rule too literally. This pervading sense of paranoia is made worse by the failure of those running the Premier League to recognise referees’ role in making it the most watched — and therefore the most wealthy — soccer competition on the planet. The league’s senior staff rock up at refs’ meetings occasionally to offer praise in private but are reticent to repeat their kind words publicly. I join The Athletic with an optimistic mindset, hopeful that I can help redress the balance and engage our intelligent readership in a mature conversation about how the sport should be officiated. Referees would argue they rarely receive a fair press, and I have long been frustrated that few football journalists appear genuinely curious about how match officials operate. Too often, they echo the ex-players on punditry panels by adopting a withering “Why-oh-why do they get it wrong?” editorial line, rather than being inquisitive about their processes and thinking.  The referee’s voice is heard rarely, even on channels and in publications that normally strive to find editorial balance and know that giving both sides of a story is fair and of interest to viewers, listeners and readers. Few decisions in the Premier League are inexplicably wrong. There are many mistakes, of course, but most calls that are labelled errors are in the margins of subjective judgments that some might support and others disavow. But if 80 per cent of viewers can accept the outcome and 20 per cent disagree, guess who makes all the noise?  I was a journalist long before I became a referee, and will remain one always. That means my starting point is you, The Athletic’s readers, not my former colleagues. I shall dig refs out if I feel it necessary and never defend the indefensible. However, I shall try to explain contentious decisions even when I cannot defend them. I do so with the experience of being an official on more than 400 Premier League matches and on all the major finals in England over the past decade.  As the European domestic seasons come to an end, I am excited about offering a referee’s perspective of the big decisions and key moments in the Premier League title race and the Champions League’s final stages. Then it will be onto the World Cup in the U.S., Canada and Mexico, where I shall be part of The Athletic’s unrivalled coverage of all the big matches from the group stages through to the final in New Jersey on 19 July. From my first Premier League game at Burnley in November 2014 to my last at the same venue in May last year, I saw the game evolve massively, not least through the introduction of technology. I was the fourth official on the first match in England with VAR, the referee of the fourth, and only the fourth ref in the country to be a video assistant. Believe it or not, the role of referee on the pitch is often enjoyable, affording as it does the best seat in the house to watch some of the world’s best players strut their stuff. Most of the stress is felt off the field, whether that be in the VAR chair or the lengthy process that is designed to hold referees to account, but that instead creates a negative culture that only serves to make errors more likely. I am grateful to The Athletic for giving me the chance to explain how referees operate and put forward the other side of the story. Hopefully, readers will find my contributions interesting. I just hope that if we disagree, we can do so agreeably.  Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms Graham Scott refereed in the Premier League for a decade before retiring in 2025 to return to his previous career as a journalist. He was a video assistant referee more than 100 times and brings a unique insight into how officials operate, both on the pitch and in the video booth.