- A new report from Bookmakers.com reveals which sports referees have received the most online abuse over the last year.
- The Premier League is named as the most toxic sporting league in the world, with 10 out the top 20 refs officiating the EPL.
Why would anyone want to be a referee in today’s age? With the growth of social media, if a referee isn’t perfect they are criticised, insulted, mocked and heavily questioned on their ability. The online world has become a minefield of negative conversations and disrespect towards referees just trying to do their jobs, and social media platforms aren’t doing much to combat this.
To raise awareness around the extent of referee trolling in today’s sport, Bookmakers.com has revealed which referees have received the most negative comments across social media over the last 12 months. To illustrate what referees have to deal with, social listening data was analysed across all major social media platforms; this revealed the number of negative remarks logged against each referee from sporting leagues such as the Premier League, NFL and NBA.
The Premier League is the Most Toxic League in the World
Due to its global popularity, being a Premier League referee draws a lot of attention; and it shows. Observing the data, 10 of the 20 most trolled referees come from the Premier League, with Anthony Taylor receiving more abuse than any other over the last 12 months (10,141 posts). The Liverpool v Chelsea tie on the 28th August caused the brunt of this abuse, with over 3,000 negative comments being aimed at him directly.
The Premier League’s Martin Atkinson (6,153 posts) and Paul Tierney (4,080 posts) also make the top-5 list. Atkinson’s worst game was West Ham United v Manchester United on the 19th September where he received over 4,000 direct negative comments, whilst Tierney’s was Tottenham Hotspur v Liverpool on the 19th December – over 3,100 negative comments were directed his way.
However, it’s not just the Premier League. The NFL’s Sarah Thomas received the 2nd worst online trolling, with 6,288 comments aimed her way – most of which were sent after the announcement of her officiating the Super Bowl (5,473 negative posts).
The Toxic World of Sports Refereeing
Below is a list of sports referees in order of volume of online abuse received over the last 12 months:
| Rank | Referee/Umpire | League | Number of Negative Posts | % of Negative Posts |
| 1 | Anthony Taylor | EPL | 10141 | 13.4% |
| 2 | Sarah Thomas | NFL | 6288 | 8.1% |
| 3 | Martin Atkinson | EPL | 6153 | 19.9% |
| 4 | Paul Tierney | EPL | 4080 | 12.5% |
| 5 | Scott Foster | NBA | 3691 | 18.8% |
| 6 | Mike Dean | EPL | 3491 | 10.5% |
| 7 | Michael Oliver | EPL | 3135 | 11.0% |
| 8 | Chris Lee | NHL | 2882 | 54.1% |
| 9 | Ruddy Buquet | Ligue 1 | 2562 | 20.1% |
| 10 | Craig Pawson | EPL | 2557 | 11.8% |
It’s important to note that the above table illustrates direct abuse aimed at each referee. With the understanding that abuse towards referees and/or umpires isn’t always aimed directly by name (e.g. ‘this ref is….’), these figures are likely much higher.
Source: https://bookmakers.com/news/the-worlds-most-trolled-referees
Read: Fulham secure return to the Premier League for 2022-23 season
