Uriah Rennie

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Personal information
Uriah Rennie

Full name	Uriah D Rennie
Date of birth	October 23, 1959 (1959-10-23) (age 48)
Place of birth	Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England
Other occupation	Magistrate
Domestic
Years	League	Role
? -1994 1994-1997 1997-	Northern Premier League Football League Premier League	Referee Referee Referee
International
2000-2005	FIFA listed	Referee

Uriah D. Rennie (born 23 October 1959^[1] in Sheffield, South Yorkshire) is an English football referee officiating in the FA Premier League and other competitions.

1 Career
2 Career statistics
3 Life outside football
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Career

He began refereeing in 1979 in local leagues, then operated in the Northern Premier League until 1994, at which time he was appointed to the Football League List of referees.

He was given his first Premiership appointment on 23 August 1997, controlling the 2-0 away win by Crystal Palace at Leeds United, goals being scored by Paul Warhurst and Attilio Lombardo.^[2]

In the year 2000, he became a FIFA referee.^[3]

Rennie made footballing history as the first black referee to officiate in the top tier of English football. In 2001, he joined the Select Group of professional referees. Keith Hackett, head of the Professional Game Match Officials Board has described him as "the fittest referee we have ever seen on the national and world scene."^[4]

He refereed the 2001 (old) Football League Division One Play-off Final between Bolton Wanderers and Preston North End at the Millennium Stadium, Cardiff, when Bolton won 3-0 with goals from Farrelly, Ricketts and Gardner. Uriah did not show a red or yellow card at all during the match.^[5]

At the end of the 2004-05 season, he retired from the FIFA list, at the compulsory age of 45.

Like many high-profile referees in top-flight football, Rennie has attracted criticism from within the game. In November 2005, he was mentioned in a remark by a stadium announcer at a Football League Championship match between Preston North End and Crystal Palace. It was announced over the tannoy as the teams came back onto the pitch after half time: "Welcome to the second half of the Uriah Rennie show".^[6] His refereeing came under criticism yet again on December 16, 2006 after Southampton's 2-0 victory over Norwich, with Canaries' manager Peter Grant claiming: "It's scandalous the way he talks to players. He shows them no respect, and yet expects respect back. With this referee it's all about him. People come to watch the players and be entertained, not to watch the referee."^[7]

On August 21, 2007, The Sun newspaper announced that Rennie had been withdrawn from the list of referees after failing the prescribed fitness tests and that he would not referee again until he passed one. These tests are re-taken after one month.^[8]

However, his failure of the tests actually turned out to be due to a hamstring injury.^[9] He made his return to active refereeing on November 24, 2007, handling the Championship match between Scunthorpe United and Hull City, which finished as a 2-1 away win.^[10]

[edit] Career statistics

Season	Games	Total	per game	Total	per game
1997/1998	27	102	3.78	10	0.37
1998/1999	27	117	4.34	7	0.26
1999/2000	28	96	3.43	10	0.36
2000/2001	39	82	2.10	8	0.21
2001/2002	34	86	2.52	5	0.15
2002/2003	31	82	2.65	10	0.32
2003/2004	24	79	3.29	1	0.04
2004/2005	31	64	2.06	2	0.06
2005/2006	44	94	2.14	5	0.11
2006/2007	39	123	3.15	5	0.13
2007/2008	21	59	2.80	7	0.33

(There are no available records prior to 1997/1998)

[edit] Life outside football

He practices both kick-boxing and aikido, and has a Master's degree in Business Administration and Law. He is also a magistrate in Sheffield. ^[11] He is married with one daughter. ^[4]