Paul Taylor (referee)

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Paul Taylor
Personal information
Full name	Paul Taylor
Date of birth	June 20, 1959 (1959-06-20) (age 48)
Place of birth	Enfield, Middlesex, England
Domestic
Years	League	Role
? - ?  ? - ?  ? -1990 1986-1990 1990-1993 1995-2000 2000-2001 2001-	Herts. County League Isthmian League Panel League Comps. Football League Football League Football League Premier League Football League	Referee Referee Referee Asst. referee Referee Referee Referee Referee
International
2000-2004 2003-2004	UEFA listed FIFA listed	Referee Referee

Paul Taylor (born Enfield, Middlesex, June 20, 1959) is an English football referee, who previously took charge of Premier League matches for just one season, and now officiates in the Football League. He has also officiated for UEFA and FIFA in the past. He subsequently re-located to Hertfordshire.

Contents 1 Career 2 Controversy 3 References 3.1 Print 3.2 Internet 4 External links

[edit] Career

He first began refereeing in 1977 and progressed via the Hertfordshire County League, the Isthmian League and the Panel League Competitions.

He was appointed as a Football League assistant referee in 1986 and promoted to referee in 1990. At this point he was aged only thirty and the youngest member on the List. As a newly rqualified referee the majority of his appointments over the next three seasons were usually in the lower divisions.

In 1993 he lost his place; under previous circumstances that would have been the end of his Football League career. Until 1993, demoted referees were not given another chance to get back onto the List. A change of policy, however, allowed him to revert to assistant status while refereeing in the Football Conference. In 1995 he successfully regained his refereeing place. This feat has since been matched by Brian Coddington, Fred Graham and Gary Lewis.^{[citation needed]}

Taylor has had far greater success in his second spell on the List. Indeed he gained further promotion to the FA Premier League for the season 2000-01. Since that time he has reverted to the Football League where he continues to be one of its leading officials.

Taylor has refereed the Hertfordshire Senior County Cup Final, the FA Sunday Cup Final and several International matches at both Youth and semi-professional level. He has also officiated in the Football League Play-Offs on six occasions including the League Two Final at the Millennium Stadium, Cardiff, in 2006.^[1]

Other notable appointments include refereeing Cheltenham Town’s first game in the Football League^[2] and Southampton's last match at The Dell versus Arsenal.^[3]

His overseas appointments include the 2000-01 UEFA Champions League third qualifying round fixture between Dynamo Kiev and Red Star Belgrade. Taylor refereed his first senior FIFA International between Nigeria and Venezuela in August 2003. In 2004 he was fourth official at the FA Trophy Final.^[4] In the same year, he retired from international refereeing due to age restrictions. In 2005 he became a County Accredited Referees Instructor and in 2006 qualified as a National Licensed Instructor.

The 2007-08 season is due to be his final one as a League referee before retirement.

[edit] Controversy

Taylor was involved in two unusual controversial incidents during the 2000-01 season.

On August 19 2000 he was the fourth official for the Sunderland v Arsenal game. He alleged that Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger had pushed him in the tunnel after the match. Wenger was eventually cleared of any wrong-doing in February 2001.

On October 14 2000 it was alleged that he made insulting and personal remarks to Notts County player Sean Farrell during the game against Wigan Athletic. The case against Taylor was dismissed at a disciplinary hearing in February 2001.^[5]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Paul Taylor Referee Statistics at soccerbase.com