Darren England

Darren England (born 23 December 1985) is a Premier League football referee, who was promoted in August 2020. In December 2021, the PGMOL announced that England had been added to the 2022 FIFA List of International Match Officials.

Prior to this, England had been a Select Group 2 referee since 2017, and prior to this, he had been a Premier League assistant referee between 2012 and 2015.

Career

He refereed the League Two Play-Off Final in 2017 between Blackpool v Exeter City and then was promoted to the Select Group 2 list.

On 30 September 2023, England was on VAR duty for a Premier League match between Tottenham Hotspur and Liverpool, a game which resulted in a 2–1 victory for Spurs. Luis Diaz had a goal ruled out for offside by the linesman – the decision was not questioned by England or any of his colleagues in VAR despite an "unusually quick decision" with no lines being drawn. After the match, PGMOL released a statement admitting that this was a "significant human error" and that "VAR failed to intervene". England, along with assistant VAR Dan Cook, were subsequently dropped for their following Premier League fixtures. Liverpool later released a statement acknowledging PGMOL's admission of failure, stating that it was "unsatisfactory that sufficient time was not afforded to allow the correct decision to be made and that there was no subsequent intervention", and that they will "explore a range of options [...] given the clear need for escalation and resolution."