{"id":561006,"date":"2026-07-21T16:15:07","date_gmt":"2026-07-21T16:15:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/561006\/"},"modified":"2026-07-21T16:15:07","modified_gmt":"2026-07-21T16:15:07","slug":"anthony-taylor-premier-league-referee-announces-retirement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/561006\/","title":{"rendered":"Anthony Taylor: Premier League referee announces retirement"},"content":{"rendered":"

Taylor refereed the 2015 EFL Cup final, with Chelsea<\/a> beating Tottenham Hotspur<\/a> 2\u20130.<\/p>\n

In 2020, he became the first referee since 1901 to take charge of two FA Cup finals<\/a> when Arsenal<\/a> beat Chelsea<\/a> 2-1.<\/p>\n

Taylor previously took charge of the 2017 FA Cup final, also a 2-1 win for Arsenal<\/a> against Chelsea<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He also refereed the Community Shield in 2015 and the 2018 Championship play-off final.<\/p>\n

Taylor received praise for the way he handed the Euro 2020 game between Denmark and Finland, which had to be halted when Christian Eriksen collapsed and suffered a cardiac arrest.<\/p>\n

He has also been appointed to several high-profile Uefa matches, including the 2020 Super Cup final, with Bayern Munich beating Sevilla 2-1, the 2021 Nations League final, in which France beat Spain 2-1, and the 2023 Europa League final which saw Sevilla beat Roma on penalties.<\/p>\n

Taylor faced a great deal of abuse after the Europa League final, but was firmly backed by Uefa referees’ chief Roberto Rosetti.<\/p>\n

Roma boss Jose Mourinho called Taylor a “disgrace” twice in a post-match news conference before confronting him in a car park – an incident the Portuguese was given a four-match ban for<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Taylor was then shouted at by angry fans as he walked though Budapest Airport with his family.<\/p>\n

In October 2025, Taylor spoke to BBC Sport about the impact of that night and the events that followed. <\/p>\n

“That’s the worst situation I’ve dealt with in terms of abuse,” Taylor said.<\/p>\n

“Not only because I was travelling with family members at the time, but it also highlights the impact of people’s behaviour on others. Even in a match like that, where there was actually no major mistakes in the game.”<\/p>\n

Taylor, who also took charge of games at the Fifa Club World Cup in 2022 and 2025, hinted in last October’s interview that his career could be coming to an end.<\/p>\n

“I’m 47 next week, so that’s quite old for somebody to be operating at this level, running around after people a lot younger than you,” Taylor said.<\/p>\n

“It’s much more of a challenge now to maintain the levels of fitness and to rest and recover.”<\/p>\n

His retirement creates a gap at the top of refereeing in the English game.<\/p>\n

Refereeing body Pro Ref, formerly known as PGMO, has merged its officials into one group for the 2026-27 season.<\/p>\n

The creation of the professional referee group, which will service the Premier League and Championship, is intended to give greater opportunities to up-and-coming officials, such as Farai Hallam and Tom Kirk.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Taylor refereed the 2015 EFL Cup final, with Chelsea beating Tottenham Hotspur 2\u20130. In 2020, he became the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":561007,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":["post-561006","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561006","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=561006"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561006\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/561007"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=561006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=561006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=561006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}