How Much Do Premier League Referees Get Paid? Salary and Fees
Premier League referees earn a £72,000–£148,000 base salary and about £180,000 with match fees and bonuses. The full pay ladder, from VAR to grassroots.
Premier League referees are salaried professionals on a base of roughly £72,000 to £148,000 a year, depending on seniority. On top of that comes a fee of about £1,116 for each match they referee, plus performance bonuses. A typical senior referee finishes the season on around £180,000, and the most senior names are estimated to get close to £250,000 from Premier League work alone, before any UEFA or FIFA fees.
None of this is officially published. The figures come from salary data obtained by The Athletic for 2023-24 and from a presentation chief refereeing officer Howard Webb gave to the 72 EFL clubs in March 2025. The referees’ body has since changed its name and structure, so check which year each number belongs to.
The pay ladder at a glance
| Level | Reported pay | Year of figure |
|---|---|---|
| Premier League referee | £72,000–£148,000 base; ~£180,000 typical total; up to ~£250,000 at the top | 2024-25 |
| Championship referee (old Select Group 2) | ~£120,000 a year | 2024-25 |
| League One and League Two referee (development group) | ~£30,000 a year | 2024-25 |
| FA Cup qualifying, fourth round | £309 per match | 2025-26 |
| Open-age county cup, grassroots | £45–£75 per match | 2025-26 |
| Youth county cup, grassroots | £22–£30 per match | 2025-26 |
Between the top line and the bottom one, the job changes completely: from a full-time salaried career to a match fee measured in tens of pounds.
Premier League referee pay, piece by piece
A top-flight referee’s income has three parts.
The base salary. This is what makes the job full-time: it pays for training, fitness work and video review whether or not there is a game that weekend. The Athletic’s figures for 2023-24, reported by GiveMeSport, showed three salary bands:
| Component | Amount (2023-24) |
|---|---|
| Base salary, entry band | £73,191 |
| Base salary, middle band | £105,257 |
| Base salary, senior band | £147,258 |
| Match fee as on-field referee | £1,116 per game |
| Match fee as VAR | £837 per game |
| Bonus | Linked to correct calls on key match incidents |
The match fee. Paid per appointment. A referee in the entry band who takes charge of 20 league games adds £22,320. Referees also take turns as VAR, which pays less per game but adds up over a season.
The bonus. Assessed on how many “key match incidents” a referee gets right, so it rewards accuracy rather than seniority.
Webb’s March 2025 figures, reported by The Times and carried by the New Straits Times, put the base at £72,000–£148,000 and the typical season total at £170,000–£180,000, with less experienced referees nearer £125,000.
The £240,000 confusion
The Daily Mail’s account of the same presentation led with an average of £240,000 for the 21 Select Group referees. The referees’ body then clarified that £240,000 was the total cost to the organisation, including National Insurance, match fees and bonuses, and that a salary of about £180,000 was more common. When £240,000 is quoted as pay, it is really the employer’s cost.
VAR, AVAR, fourth officials and assistants
The only published per-game figure for video work is the £837 VAR fee from 2023-24. Fees for the assistant VAR and the fourth official have not been reported reliably, so treat any precise number for those roles with suspicion.
For 2026-27 the Premier League named 52 assistants: 26 in the Professional Assistant Referee Group and 26 in the Professional Development Assistant Referee Group. The Mail’s report put assistant referees at around £110,000, without saying which group that covered or whether it was salary or total cost.
What changed for 2026-27
On 29 June 2026 PGMOL announced its new name: Pro Ref (Professional Game Referees). The same FA announcement confirmed that Select Group 1, Select Group 2 and the Supplementary List would merge into one Professional Referee Group serving both the Premier League and the Championship. The new arrangement is paid for under a three-year agreement between the Premier League, the EFL, the FA and WSL Football.
The Premier League’s list for this season names 39 referees in that group. That is the same number as the 21 Select Group 1 and 18 Select Group 2 referees of 2024-25 combined. The merger was already on the table in March 2025, alongside “managed exits” and a complaint about “jobs for life”: churn of just 3% between 2018 and 2024, against an ideal of 10% a year.
Pro Ref has not said how pay bands work inside the merged group, so the figures above, from the old two-group structure, remain the latest available. The group has also lost its most experienced name: Anthony Taylor retired after the 2026 World Cup, having refereed 432 Premier League matches over 16 seasons, according to Sky Sports.
Who pays for the referees
The Mail’s report also gave rare detail on the body’s finances, then still under the PGMOL name. Operating costs had doubled in eight years, from £16m to a forecast £33.7m, against income of £31.2m. Of that, about £17.4m came from the Premier League, £7m from the EFL, £4.2m from the FA and £1m from the Women’s Professional League. Webb warned of a £23.1m loss over five years without more money. The three-year funding deal followed in 2026.
EFL referees: Championship, League One and League Two
According to Webb’s presentation, the 18 Select Group 2 referees who mostly worked in the Championship were on around £120,000, roughly half the cost of a top-flight referee. Below them, the 29 members of the development group who refereed in League One and League Two were paid around £30,000.
That is the steepest drop in the system: on these figures, a Championship referee was paid four times as much as a development-group referee in League One or League Two for the same 90 minutes. Championship referees now sit in the same group as Premier League referees; whether that changed their pay has not been disclosed.
Women’s Super League referees
Since 2021-22 officials in the WSL and Women’s Championship have been managed by the professional referees’ body rather than the FA, with the same training and support as the men’s game. WSL Football is now one of Pro Ref’s four funders.
What WSL referees are paid has not been published, and no recent figure from a reliable outlet is available.
Grassroots and non-league: paid by the match
The FA had 37,518 registered match officials in England in December 2025, and almost all are paid per game, at rates set by county FAs and competitions. Two documents for 2025-26 show the range: the FA Cup qualifying fee schedule and Wiltshire FA’s county cup fees.
| Competition (2025-26) | Referee | Assistant | Fourth official |
|---|---|---|---|
| FA Cup: extra preliminary to first qualifying round | £75 | £55 | — |
| FA Cup: second and third qualifying rounds | £120 | £80 | £50 |
| FA Cup: fourth qualifying round | £309 | £155 | £103 |
| Wiltshire Premier Shield | £75 | £55 | £45 |
| Wiltshire Senior and Women’s Premier Cup | £60 | £45 | £35 |
| Wiltshire Sunday, Junior, Veterans and Women’s cups | £45 | £35 | £30 |
| Wiltshire youth cups (U12 to U18) | £22–£30 | £18–£22 | — |
FA Cup officials also claim 40p a mile by car and receive half their fee if the match is not played.
UEFA, FIFA and how England compares
International appointments sit on top of the domestic salary. In 2023 Calcio e Finanza set out UEFA’s club competition fees: €5,000 a match for an elite-category referee and €6,000 from the quarter-finals, against €2,700 and €3,700 for the first category below. Elite assistants got €1,500 to €1,800 and fourth officials €750 to €900, plus a €200 daily allowance.
FIFA does not publish its rates either. Sporting News reported that main referees at the 2026 World Cup received a $70,000 base fee plus $3,000 per group game and $10,000 per knockout game.
Against the rest of Europe, England’s top salary band is the highest of the big five leagues, but its match fee is the lowest. The Athletic’s 2023-24 data showed La Liga referees on a flat £124,256 with £4,205 per match, Bundesliga referees on £52,977 to £70,067 with £4,784 per match, Serie A referees on about £77,000 with around £3,420 a match, and Ligue 1 referees on about £67,000 with around £2,870 a match.
Why the figures stay secret
Pro Ref does not publish individual pay, and PGMOL told The Athletic it could not comment on specific salary figures. Everything known comes from journalists’ data or a leaked presentation to clubs, which is why one season produces £180,000 in one report and £240,000 in another: different definitions, both accurate on their own terms.
How to become a referee
Everyone starts with the FA Referee Course, open from age 14, which combines online study of the Laws with practical sessions and qualifying matches. From there it is a long climb through county and national levels to Pro Ref. A solid grasp of the offside rule and how added time works is the minimum. To compare officials with players, see how much footballers get paid at every level.
FAQ
How much does a Premier League referee earn per match?
On The Athletic’s 2023-24 figures, £1,116 for each game in charge and £837 for a game as VAR, on top of a base salary of £73,191 to £147,258.
How much do Premier League referees earn a year in total?
Around £170,000 to £180,000 for a typical senior referee with match fees and bonuses, according to Howard Webb’s March 2025 presentation. The most experienced are estimated to get close to £250,000 from Premier League work alone, with UEFA and FIFA fees on top.
How much do Championship referees get paid?
In 2024-25 the 18 Select Group 2 referees were on around £120,000. From 2026-27 they are part of a single 39-strong group with the Premier League referees, and new pay bands have not been published.
Are Premier League referees full-time?
Yes. Referees in Pro Ref’s top group are salaried professionals rather than living on match fees. Below the Championship pay falls fast: League One and League Two referees were on around £30,000 in 2024-25.
How much do grassroots referees get paid?
A match fee, not a salary. In Wiltshire’s 2025-26 county cups an open-age referee earned £45 to £75 a game and a youth referee £22 to £30; FA Cup qualifying paid £75 to £309, plus travel.
