referees

In October, Taylor told BBC Sport that he was unsure how long he would continue refereeing, adding that he was “quite old for somebody to be operating at this level, running around after people a lot younger than you”.

Taylor said that the main focus was to have “two refereeing teams at the World Cup”.

Prior to 2018, 2013-14 was the previous time England had three elite officials: Atkinson, Mark Clattenburg and Howard Webb.

The elite list of referees take charge of tournament and Champions League games. The first list is for the Europa League and Conference League. The second list is for Conference League games and qualifying ties.

Germany continues to lead the way with four referees in the elite category. Kavanagh’s promotion finally puts England on a par with France, Italy and Spain, who all have three.

England still lags behind across the two key categories, elite and first, with fewer officials than all the other top leagues.

John Brooks is the only English referee on the first list, meaning there are four in total. Germany has seven, with France and Spain on six and Italy five.

The Premier League has six referees on the second list: Stuart Attwell, Sam Barrott, Darren England, Jarred Gillett, Rob Jones and Andy Madley.

Meanwhile, Emily Heaslip has been promoted to the women’s first list. England has been unrepresented on the elite list of the women’s game since Rebecca Welch retired at the start of the 2024-25 season.

Puka Nacua’s comments about NFL officiating came with a cost — and not just the distraction the controversy caused the Rams before their overtime defeat by the Seattle Seahawks.

The NFL fined the Rams receiver $25,000 for remarks he made about NFL officiating, according to NFL Media.

Nacua caught 12 passes for a career-best 225 yards and two touchdowns against the Seahawks.

During a livestream on Tuesday, with YouTubers N3on and Adin Ross, Nacua said, “The refs are the worst.”

Nacua did not stop there.

“These guys are lawyers, and like, really, they want to be on TV, too, bro,” Nacua said. “You don’t think he’s texting his friends in the group chat like, ‘Yo, you guys just saw me on “Sunday Night Football.” Like, that wasn’t [pass interference], but I called it.’”

After the loss to the Seahawks, Nacua appeared to double down.

“Can you say I was wrong,” he posted to X. “Appreciate you stripes for your contribution. Lol”

The post was quickly deleted.

“Just a moment of frustration after a tough, intense game like that, just thinking of the opportunities that I could have done better to take it out of their hands,” Nacua told reporters in the locker room. “Just a moment of frustration.”

Coach Sean McVay said during his postgame news conference that he had not seen Nacua’s post to X.

In regard to Nacua’s criticism of officials during the livestream, McVay said, “Yeah, we don’t want to do that.”

It was a tumultuous week for Nacua, who apologized Thursday for making a antisemitic gesture during the same livestream, saying he didn’t know that the gesture was considered offensive.