 Swarbrick in 2013 | |||
| Born | (1965-12-20)20 December 1965 (age 59)[1] Preston,Lancashire, England | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Domestic | |||
| Years | League | Role | |
| ? – ? | Northern Premier League | Referee | |
| ? – ? | Conference | Referee | |
| 2005–2011 | The Football League | Referee | |
| 2011–2018 | Premier League | Referee | |
Neil Swarbrick (born 20 December 1965) is an English retiredfootballreferee who officiated primarily in thePremier League having been promoted to theSelect Group of Referees in 2011.
He is based inPreston, Lancashire, and is a member of theLancashire County Football Association.
Swarbrick took up refereeing relatively late, at the age of 29. Within six years he was promoted to the National List ofassistant referees. He fulfilled this role for four years before being added to the Referees' List.[2]
He refereed in theFootball Conference until moving up intothe Football League. He has also officiatedFA Cup andFootball League Cup matches. Swarbrick's firstPremier League appointment came in December 2010 when he took charge of a goalless draw betweenFulham andSunderland.[1][3] During his second Premier League appointment in February 2011 Swarbrick issued his first red card in England's top division, toDJ Campbell ofBlackpool as they lost 4–0 away toWolverhampton Wanderers.[4]
It was announced on 20 June 2011 that Swarbrick had been promoted to the Select Group of Referees who officiate all Premier League fixtures. He joined the Select Group for the 2011/12 season alongside fellow newly promoted officialJonathan Moss.
Swarbrick retired from refereeing at the end of the 2017/18 season however will continue to work and lead the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) in the Premier League. He is Head of Implementation of VAR in the Premier League and is involved in the training of Select Group 1 and Select Group 2 referees to use VAR when it is introduced in the 2019/20 season.[5]
After a match betweenSheffield Wednesday andAston Villa on 24 February 2018, Swarbrick attracted criticism for his performance. In the game, he awarded 16 fouls to the away side, and only one to home side, which was seen as an unfair imbalance between the two sides. Swarbrick also turned down a penalty appeal for Wednesday, Villa defenderJohn Terry appeared to get away with what looked like a red card offence for a foul on strikerAtdhe Nuhiu, and he awarded a questionable late penalty to Villa. His performance was defended by former Premier League refereeRoger Dilkes.[6][7][8]
He has also been involved in some controversies as a VAR referee. One such incident where this was called into question was during the all Premier League FA Cup tie between Brighton and Liverpool. He made another questionable call in the February 2023Premier League tie betweenWest Ham vsChelsea missing a blatant handball in the penalty box, which resulted in thePGMOL dropping him from the next round of Premier League games as a VAR referee.[9]
| Season | Games | Total | per game | Total | per game |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2005/06 | 29 | 57 | 1.97 | 2 | 0.07 |
| 2006/07 | 34 | 96 | 2.82 | 9 | 0.26 |
| 2007/08 | 38 | 76 | 2.00 | 8 | 0.21 |
| 2008/09 | 36 | 82 | 2.28 | 4 | 0.11 |
| 2009/10 | 35 | 104 | 2.97 | 8 | 0.23 |
| 2010/11 | 40 | 108 | 2.70 | 8 | 0.20 |
| 2011/12 | 30 | 107 | 3.57 | 7 | 0.23 |
| 2012/13 | 31 | 111 | 3.58 | 1 | 0.03 |