Paul S. Danson (born 2 May 1958,

Leicestershire Leicestershire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It is bordered by Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire to the north, Rutland to the east, Northamptonshire to the south-east, Warw ...

Birthdate confirmation and profile
at

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 ...

official website. Retrieved on 19 July 2007.) is an English former association football

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 ...

and

Premier League The Premier League is a professional association football league in England and the highest level of the English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football Lea ...

. During his time on the List he was based in

Leicester Leicester ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city, Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area, and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest city in the East Midlands with a popula ...

Career

In 1972, he qualified as a referee, progressing through the

Leicestershire Senior League The Leicestershire Senior League (currently sponsored by Everards Brewery) is a association football, football competition based in Leicestershire, England. History The league was formed in 1896, had a two-year hiatus between 1901 and 1903, and ...

and the Southern League. He became a Football League linesman in 1984, graduating to the Football League referees list three years later, at the age of only twenty nine. His major breakthrough came in 1994. He was one of three new referees appointed to the Premier List along with fellow

official Peter Jones and Gary Willard from

Sussex Sussex (Help:IPA/English, /ˈsʌsɪks/; from the Old English ''Sūþseaxe''; lit. 'South Saxons'; 'Sussex') is an area within South East England that was historically a kingdom of Sussex, kingdom and, later, a Historic counties of England, ...

. Over the next three seasons all his league games were at Premiership level (as was standard for Premiership referees at the time). However, his performances did not always find favour – most notably a game at

Highbury Highbury is an area of North London, England, in the London Borough of Islington. Highbury Manor Highbury was once owned by Ranulf, brother of Ilger, and included all the areas north and east of Canonbury and Holloway Roads. The manor hou ...

between

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and

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on 28 September 1996,^† when two away players and the Sunderland manager were sent off before half-time. At the end of the 1996–97 season he was dropped from the Premier List and reverted to Football League level. For the next few years he was one of its senior officials, often receiving key appointments such as an old First Division

play-off The playoffs, play-offs, postseason or finals of a sports league are a competition played after the regular season by the top competitors to determine the league champion or a similar accolade. Depending on the league, the playoffs may be eith ...

semi-final A single-elimination knockout, or sudden-death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of a match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final match-up, w ...

on 17 May 2001 at

Deepdale Deepdale is a football stadium in the Deepdale area of Preston, England that is the home ground of Preston North End. Built in 1875 and in use since 1878, Deepdale is recognised as being one of the oldest continuously used football stadium ...

, where Preston beat

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after

extra-time Overtime (OT) or extra time (ET) is an additional period of play to bring a game to a decision and avoid declaring the match a tie or draw where the scores are the same. In some sports, this extra period is played only if the game is required t ...

and penalties (Preston had already missed a spot-kick during the regulation 90 minutes). The then Birmingham manager

Trevor Francis Trevor John Francis (19 April 1954 – 24 July 2023) was an English footballer who played as a forward for a number of clubs in England, the United States, Italy, Scotland and Australia. In 1979 he became Britain's first £1 million pla ...

was said to be "visibly furious" after Danson moved the location of the penalty shootout from the empty end of the ground to the goal behind which the Preston fans were situated (on police advice), and he removed his players from the field in protest for a short while. Following a

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match between

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and

West Bromwich Albion West Bromwich Albion Football Club (), commonly known as West Brom or The Albion, is a professional association football club based in West Bromwich, West Midlands, England. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second level of the Englis ...

Selhurst Park Selhurst Park is a football stadium in Selhurst, in the London Borough of Croydon, England, which is the home ground of Premier League club Crystal Palace. The stadium was designed by Archibald Leitch and opened in 1924. It has hosted interna ...

on 20 September 2003, he had to attend hospital in

Croydon Croydon is a large town in South London, England, south of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Croydon, a Districts of England, local government district of Greater London; it is one of the largest commercial districts in Greater Lond ...

(

Surrey Surrey () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East Sussex, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the wes ...

) for treatment, due to being hit in the mouth and rendered unconscious whilst dealing with a three-man altercation on the pitch during the match, which ended 2–2 and generated eight cautions.Injury
to his mouth, Crystal Palace v. West Brom, 2003:

Independent on Sunday ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publishe ...

report via the ''FindArticles.com'' website. Retrieved on 19 July 2007. Matters took a very different turn in the 2004–05 season. He refereed only three games in the top division of the Football League and was largely on lower division duty. At the end of that season he lost his place on the League List after a tenure of eighteen years. Potentially he could have had another two years before retirement and had that happened he would have completed twenty years and become the longest-serving referee since the 1920s.^‡ However, he did gain experience in Europe as a

fourth official In association football, an assistant referee (also known as a linesman) is an official who assists the referee in administering the Laws of the Game during a match. Although assistants are not required under the Laws, at most organised levels ...

and assistant referee. He returned to the assistants' list for the first time since 1987, although he did handle three games as a referee in the

Football Conference North The National League North, officially known as Vanarama National League North for sponsorship reasons, is a professional Association football league in England. National League North is the second division of the National League (English footb ...

in season 2005–06 before finishing his top-class career completely.

References

Print

*Football League Handbooks 1984–1987 *Rothmans / Sky Sports Football Yearbooks 1987–2006 *Rothmans Football Yearbook (1997), Headline, (^†p14) * ^‡ Gilbert Upton (2005) Football League and Premiership Referees 1888 to 2005, Soccerdata, p20.

Internet

External links

Paul Danson Referee Statistics
at

Soccerbase ''Racing Post'' is a British daily horse racing, greyhound racing, and sports betting publisher published in print and digital formats. It is printed in tabloid format from Monday to Sunday. , it has an average daily circulation of 60,629 cop ...

.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Danson, Paul 1958 births English football referees People from Leicester Living people English Football League referees Premier League referees