SerpApi.Org
Anthony Taylor, one of the two leading referees in English football, has quit aged 47 just two weeks after officiating a World Cup tie.
Spain’s last-16 victory over Portugal in Dallas was Taylor’s last game, bringing to an abrupt end one of the most successful refereeing careers in the English game. Taylor had vied with Michael Oliver for the Premier League’s biggest games for about eight years – but it has not always been a smooth ride.
Taylor’s retirement will leave a significant gap among the leading referees whom Howard Webb – chief refereeing officer at Pro Ref, formerly Professional Game Match Officials Ltd (PGMOL) – trusts with marquee English top-flight matches. The rebranded organisation for officials had appointed Taylor to some of its biggest games, although he had, by choice, long ruled himself out of VAR duty.
There are lucrative administration jobs available for the world’s top referees when they retire. Webb worked for the Saudi Arabia football federation and for Major League Soccer in the US. He did a brief stint at PGMOL post-retirement and then switched to Saudi, returning to England in 2022. One of his successors, Mark Clattenburg, worked in Saudi Arabia.
Taylor had a distinguished career in refereeing, with 432 Premier League matches and 688 overall in the professional game. He has taken charge of two FA Cup finals. Referees generally only get one, but Covid lockdown meant that convention was suspended. He never reached the heights of the Champions League final, although he has overseen the Europa League final, the Fifa Club World Cup final and the Uefa Nations League final.
England’s relative success at recent European Championships and World Cups has ruled out Taylor and Oliver from officiating those tournament finals. This month there was no prospect of an English referee being appointed to the World Cup final once England and Argentina progressed to face one another in the second semi-final.
Taylor’s lowest moment came after he was confronted by José Mourinho in the car park of the Puskás Aréna in Budapest over decisions made in Roma’s defeat by Sevilla in the 2023 Europa League final.
Taylor and his family were then harangued by fans in the airport as they left Budapest.
Taylor later said that his family stopped coming to games after that episode and defended his performances. “That [the abuse] is a great source of disappointment, frustration, anger,” he said. “Why that’s acceptable, I don’t know – because I’m sure those individuals wouldn’t like somebody to turn around and say that to them or their own children.”
Taylor was also a successful assistant; he was on Clattenburg’s team for the 2016 Champions League final and for the 2016 Euros final. In 2015 he was one of the two additional assistants behind the goal when Martin Atkinson refereed the Europa League final.
Webb paid tribute to Taylor and described him as “one of the most successful officials that English football has ever produced”.
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