The authoritative and respected Howard Webb MBE is a former professional football referee, who primarily officiated in the Premier League between 2003 and 2014. He is counted amongst the all-time top referees by the International Federation of Football History and Statistics, and refereed a number of notable games in England, including the FA Cup Final, the FA Community Shield, and the League Cup final. In 2010 he became the first person to referee the finals of both the UEFA Champions League and the FIFA World Cup in the same year. He was awarded an MBE in 2011 for services to football.

Born and raised in Rotherham, Webb joined the South Yorkshire Police force in 1993 and was a Police sergeant by the time he took up refereeing professionally. He had been refereeing local leagues since 1989, and by 1996 he was appointed as a Football League assistant referee. In 2000 he was included on the National List of Football League referees and three years later was promoted to the Select Group of professional referees. He took charge of his first Premier League match in 2003. In 2005 he was appointed to FIFA’s international referees list, and later took a sabbatical from the police force in 2008 for five-years to concentrate on officiating. He went on to referee 296 Premier League matches, 43 FA Cup games, 36 Champions League fixtures, 19 EFL Cup ties, six games in World Cups, five games in European Championships, and four matches during Confederation Cups. He returned to the police force in 2013, and a year later retired from refereeing. He took up the role of technical director of the Professional Game Match Officials Board in 2014, and then became director of referees for the Saudi Arabian Football Federation. At the same time he also joined BT Sport as an analyst. He left SAFF in 2017 to become the Manager of VAR Operations for Major League Soccer’s Professional Referee Organisation.

Webb regularly connects with his legions of followers and fans through Twitter, posting pictures and videos about his life around football and his beloved Rotherham United.