Stuart Steven Attwell (born 6 October 1982) is an English 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 tit ...

who officiates primarily in the

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

. Attwell made a prominent debut in 2008 as the youngest person ever to referee in the Premier League. but was demoted from the

Select Group The Select Group is a panel of English professional football referees and assistant referees, appointed by Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL). Select Group 1 In August 2022, the PGMOL announced the referees and assistant referees ...

in February 2012, returning to refereeing in the Football League. He returned to the Select Group in March 2016.

Career

In 1982 he was born in Nuneaton,

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Avon an ...

and grew up there. Attwell graduated from

Staffordshire University , mottoeng = Dare to know , type = Public , endowment = £70 million (2015) , administrative_staff = 1,375 , chancellor = Francis Fitzherbert, 15th Baron Stafford , vice_chancellor = Professor Martin Jones , ...

in 2004. Refereeing had been a lifelong ambition for him, according to his father. Attwell worked his way up from local games to non-League football, then to the West Midlands League and

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, the league is the oldest such competition in the world. It was the top-level football league in Engla ...

. His promotion to Football League refereeing came ahead of the 2007–08 season, officiating his first match on 11 August 2007 in a

League Two The English Football League Two (often referred to as League Two for short or Sky Bet League Two for sponsorship purposes, and known as the Football League Two from 2004 until 2016) is the third and lowest division of the English Football Le ...

fixture between

Hereford United Hereford United Football Club was an association football club based in Hereford, England. They played at Edgar Street for their entire history. They were nicknamed 'The Whites' or 'The Lilywhites', after their predominantly white kit, or 'Th ...

and

Rotherham United Rotherham United Football Club, nicknamed The Millers, is a professional football club based in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England, which compete in the . The club's colours were initially yellow and black, but changed to red and white around ...

. He first officiated in League One when taking charge of a game between

Swansea City Swansea City Association Football Club (; cy, Clwb Pêl-droed Cymdeithas Dinas Abertawe) is a professional football club based in Swansea, Wales that plays in the Championship, the second tier of English football. Swansea have played their ho ...

and Gillingham. Attwell continued to be promoted, and on 26 December 2007, he made his

Championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this system ...

debut officiating a 1–1 draw between Sheffield United and

Blackpool Blackpool is a seaside resort in Lancashire, England. Located on the northwest coast of England, it is the main settlement within the borough also called Blackpool. The town is by the Irish Sea, between the Ribble and Wyre rivers, and ...

. In total he refereed five Championship games during the 2007–08 season. On 26 May 2008 Attwell officiated the League Two play-off final between

Rochdale Rochdale ( ) is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, at the foothills of the South Pennines in the dale on the River Roch, northwest of Oldham and northeast of Manchester. It is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough ...

and

Stockport County Stockport County Football Club are a professional football club in Stockport, England, who compete in EFL League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system. Formed in 1883 as Heaton Norris Rovers, they were renamed Stockport Co ...

Wembley Stadium Wembley Stadium (branded as Wembley Stadium connected by EE for sponsorship reasons) is a football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the Wembley Stadium (1923), original Wembley Stadium, which was demolished from 200 ...

, won 3–2 by Stockport. Attwell was included in the Select Group of referees for the 2008–09 season, making him eligible to referee in the

, and granting him full-time employment by the Professional Game Match Officials Association. On 25 June 2008, he was promoted to the list of top flight officials in the Premier League, after just one season in

. This made him the youngest ever Premier League referee at 25 years of age. On 23 August 2008, he made his Premier League debut when he refereed a 1–1 draw between

Blackburn Rovers Blackburn Rovers Football Club is a professional football club, based in Blackburn, Lancashire, England, which competes in the , the second tier of the English football league system. They have played home matches at Ewood Park since 1890. T ...

and

Hull City Hull City Association Football Club is a professional football club based in Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, England, that compete in the . They have played home games at the MKM Stadium since moving from Boothferry Park in 2002. The club's ...

. Attwell and one of his assistants, Nigel Bannister, were censured for a decision to award a "

ghost goal In association football, a ghost goal (or phantom goal) is either a goal wrongly awarded despite the ball not having crossed the Goal line (football), goal line, or a goal wrongly not given despite the ball having crossed the line. In an attempt t ...

" to

Reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of Letter (alphabet), letters, symbols, etc., especially by Visual perception, sight or Somatosensory system, touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifaceted process invo ...

in a Championship game at

Watford Watford () is a town and Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough in Hertfordshire, England, 15 miles northwest of Central London, on the River Colne, Hertfordshire, River Colne. Initially a small market town, the Grand Junction Canal en ...

on 20 September 2008 after Bannister mistakenly flagged for a goal instead of a corner kick. The incident led to both Attwell and Bannister being dropped from their duties the following weekend. Six weeks later, Attwell refereed a 1–1 draw between

Derby County Derby County Football Club () is a professional association football club based in Derby, Derbyshire, England. In 2022, it was announced that DCFC was acquired by Clowes Developments (UK) Ltd, a Derbyshire-based property group. Founded in 1884 ...

and

Nottingham Forest Nottingham Forest Football Club is an association football club based in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England. Nottingham Forest was founded in 1865 and have been playing their home games at the City Ground, on the banks of the River Tren ...

. On 20 December 2008, Attwell was added to the international list of referees for 2009. In July 2010, Attwell officiated in Japanese J. League matches for three weeks. Attwell and Anthony Taylor were sent to Japan as part of referee exchange programmes signed between the English FA and Japanese FA. In February 2012, Attwell was demoted from the list of Select Group Referees and returned to Football League duty on the National List. The move was said to come by mutual consent. Professional Game Match Officials Limited general manager Mike Riley backed Attwell to improve as a referee and return to the top level. Attwell returned to officiating in the Premier League in October 2014. He was promoted to the list of Select Group Referees in March 2016.

Career statistics

England

Statistics for all competitions, including domestic, European and international. No records available prior to 2007–08.

Japan

References

External links

Stuart Attwell Referee Statistics
at soccerbase.com
Stuart Attwell Profile
at Refworld.com
Stuart Attwell Profile
at RateTheRef.net {{DEFAULTSORT:Attwell, Stuart 1982 births Living people Sportspeople from Nuneaton English football referees English Football League referees Premier League referees