Robert Madley (born 6 October 1985) is an English professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

referee A referee is an official, in a variety of sports and competition, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection. The official tasked with this job may be known by a variety of other title ...

who was on the list of Select Group Referees who officiate primarily in the

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between 2013 and 2018. He officiated in

the Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, it is the oldest football league in the world, and was the top-level football league in England from ...

as a referee from 2010 and was one of the youngest officials to progress to the top-flight of English football. Madley was previously one of the referee development officers for the West Riding County Football Association before taking up a full-time role with the Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL). His older brother, Andrew Madley, is a Premier League and FIFA-listed referee.

Career

In his early career, from 2001, Madley refereed in the Wakefield and District League and then the West Yorkshire Association Football League. In 2010, he joined the National List of referees who officiate in

. In 2012, he was added to the

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fifth officials' list. In April 2013, Madley took charge of his first

fixture, between

Southampton Southampton is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. It is located approximately southwest of London, west of Portsmouth, and southeast of Salisbury. Southampton had a population of 253, ...

and West Bromwich Albion at St Mary's Stadium. He sent off three players during the game, one from each team for violent conduct, and later a second Southampton player for serious foul play. West Brom manager Steve Clarke, whose team won 3–0, said after the game that he thought all three red cards were correct. In June 2013, Madley was promoted to the panel of Select Group Referees who officiate all fixtures in the Premier League. In April 2015, he was selected to officiate both legs of the FA Youth Cup final between Manchester City and Chelsea. He was promoted to the FIFA referee list in January 2016. On Sunday 6 August 2017, he refereed the

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2017 match between

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and Chelsea. In the 2017–18 season, Madley was criticised for several decisions by former Premier League referees including Keith Hackett, Graham Poll and Mark Halsey. He quit suddenly in August 2018, when he "decided to relocate due to a change in his personal circumstances", according to a statement by PGMOL. He later revealed, in December 2019, that he recorded a video 'mocking' a disabled person and sent it to a friend who subsequently forwarded it to his employers, for which he was dismissed and left the ranks of PGMOL referees. He subsequently moved to Norway where he officiated in lower league matches. In 2019, Madley signed on to referee in the 6-a-side World Cup. He refereed the tournament final in Crete, as Russia beat Poland. He also mentored other referees during the tournament. On 13 February 2020, following discussions with PGMOL, it was announced that he would return to refereeing in English football, initially at grassroots level, before joining the National List of referees, enabling him to officiate League One and League Two matches, for the 2020–21 season. On 25 October 2022, Madley was promoted back to the

after four years. He took charge of

Brentford Brentford is a suburban town in West (London sub region), West London, England and part of the London Borough of Hounslow. It lies at the confluence of the River Brent and the River Thames, Thames, west of Charing Cross. Its economy has dive ...

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on Saturday 29 October 2022. He sent off Diego Costa in the seventh minute of added time after a

video assistant referee The video assistant referee (VAR) is a Assistant referee (association football), match official in association football who assists the referee by reviewing decisions using video footage and providing advice to the referee based on those revi ...

(VAR) check.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Madley, Robert 1985 births Living people English football referees Premier League referees Sportspeople from Wakefield English expatriate sportspeople in Norway