It’s a profession in which details about salaries and salary structure are often shrouded in secrecy.
However, Athleticism obtained a breakdown of officials’ salaries, fees and bonuses from Europe’s top five leagues and Major League Soccer, which was cross-referenced with the respective competitions and converted to pounds sterling at current exchange rates.
Referees in Spain’s elite are on average the highest paid, but English officials have the potential to earn the highest annual salary.
In La Liga, referees are paid a fixed salary of £124,256 ($157,115) and receive an additional match fee of £4,205, or £2,102 per match if they are the VAR referee. Spanish officials also receive an extra £21,929 a year for image rights, linked to wearing Wurth Group advertising on their kits.
Premier League referees, however, are paid on a sliding scale of between £73,191, £105,257 and £147,258 depending on their experience level and rank. Their match fee is £1,116 per match, or £837 for working as a Video Assistant Referee.
Premier League referees also receive a bonus based on the quality of their performance and the number of “key match incidents” they successfully complete.
Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL), the body which oversees the development and appointment of officials in English football, said it could not comment on specific salary figures.
MLS referees earn a salary similar to that of Europe’s top leagues following the resolution of the pay dispute which saw officials locked out for the start of the new season. Referees in the Italian Serie A come second, followed by the German Bundesliga and the French Ligue 1.
Asked about the high salaries of Spanish referees, Eduardo Iturralde Gonzalez, a former international official, said: “We are only the highest paid in six years. We were sixth or seventh. This is a struggle that we started a long, long time ago.
“Before, in my time, you had to have another job. There is now more professionalism and dedication. From now on, referees live and think about refereeing 24 hours a day.”
In England, there are 20 full-time professional referees from Select Group One (SG1), an elite team who officiate Premier League matches. At the top of the tree are UEFA’s elite category SG1 referees, including Anthony Taylor and Michael Oliver, who receive additional income for officiating European and international matches.
They are employed by the PGMOL, led by Howard Webb, who refereed the Champions League and World Cup finals in 2010. He replaced Mike Riley in December 2022.
Below them are 22 Select Group 2 (SG2) referees, who mainly deal with the Championship, as well as occasional Ligue 1 and Ligue 2 matches. Their salary is broadly similar to that of a referee newly promoted to referee high profile matches and they also receive match compensation on top of that.
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Recently there has been greater movement between levels, with Rebecca Welch among the SG2 officials who joined the Premier League this season, becoming the first female official to win a top-flight match in England when she been named to take charge of Fulham against Burnley. in December.
Finally, there is the National Group, referees who deal with Ligue 1 and Ligue 2 matches. They usually have another job and receive a lump sum for refereeing a match, as well as receiving travel and travel expenses. of mileage.
PGMOL was first introduced in 2001 when English referees turned professional. At that time, officials received a basic salary of £35,000 plus match fees. As former referee Keith Hackett told the Guardian: “You had several guys who were always eating fast food and were suddenly eating at Michelin-starred restaurants. »
This move towards professionalism has coincided with a rise in standards, with referees now following strict fitness regimes, taking part in fortnightly two-day collective training sessions, working with sports scientists and achieving detailed feedback on their performance during matches.
The subject of remuneration was then highlighted in 2017 when Mark Clattenburg, now a referee analyst at Nottingham Forest and officiating on the British game show Gladiators, left his role as a Premier League referee to take up a role as a referee. direction to Saudi Arabia. In his book Whistle Blower, he recalls: “I knew the money in Saudi Arabia could prepare me for life”, saying it was “life-changing – £525,000 a year, tax-free”.
He added: “In the Premier League I earned £100,000 plus bonuses, which was around £30,000, all going towards my pension. To put that into context, one year in Saudi Arabia would equate to around eight in the Premier League.
Oliver earned around £3,000 for refereeing a league match between Cristiano Ronaldo’s Al Nassr and Al Hilal in Saudi Arabia in April last year. He also officiated a match in the UAE between Sharjah and Al-Ain in September – with Stuart Burt and Dan Cook as assistants and Darren England as VAR. This later came under scrutiny as it was revealed the match took place just 48 hours before the latter pair’s ‘significant human error’ in disallowing Luis Diaz’s goal for Liverpool against Tottenham Hotspur .
In Germany, there is also a difference in the annual salary of referees depending on their experience and level, but officials in the Bundesliga are paid less.
Referees with less than five years’ experience receive £52,977, rising to £61,522 when they exceed this threshold, with elite referees receiving a salary of £70,067. On top of that, their match fee per Bundesliga match is £4,784, with VAR receiving £1,794. An official’s match fee in the 2.Bundesliga, the second tier, is £2,392. Their severance pay can be up to two annual salaries, but there are no additional performance bonuses.
In Serie A, referees receive a salary of £76,954 to £77,345, with match fees of £3,420 to £3,437. The match fee for a VAR is between £1,453 and £1,461.
Ligue 1 officials in France receive between £66,716 and £67,058, with match fees ranging from £2,865 to £2,880. Match fees for VAR are £855 to £859. In France, retirement pay is between £8,500 and £51,000, depending on status and age.
In France, arbitration is currently the subject of particular surveillance. There has been a breakdown in trust between Ligue 1 clubs and officials, with several clubs publicly questioning decisions and the application of the VAR system. Internally, there were also tensions.
Stéphane Lannoy, head of professional football referees, has left the French Football Federation (FFF) and Anthony Gautier, technical director of refereeing at the FFF and who took over Lannoy’s responsibilities, is under fire from critics, with 17 of the top 18 flying clubs issued a joint statement last month demanding its withdrawal because “dialogue and trust are definitively broken”. Refereeing standards will remain a contentious issue for the remainder of the campaign.
MLS referees are paid much better than they were just a month ago. This is due to a new contract between the union that represents the referees (the PSRA) and the MLS-funded company that staffs and trains them (PRO), thereby increasing the salaries and benefits of America’s top officials.
The road to this contract has been rocky, with the union and league engaging in federally mediated negotiations. Both sides accused each other of unfair labor practices and the PRO eventually locked out its own officials, leading MLS to play the first four weeks of its season using so-called “referees.” replacement”, temporary referees from abroad and from lower American divisions. . These officials performed admirably, but also operated at a demonstrably lower level than full-time MLS players, much to the dismay of MLS players and coaches. Full-time referees are back on the field after the contract was concluded ahead of last weekend’s matches.
An MLS official initially starts at a lower pay grade, classified as a “probationary” referee for their first two years working in the league. A probationary referee, under the terms of the new contract between the referees’ union and the league, earns a salary of approximately $85,000 (£67,568) in 2024. Central referees, assistant referees, fourth officials and officials of VAR also receive match compensation ranging from $550. for video officials at $1,500 for the referee and assistant referee.
Non-probationary referees, who make up the bulk of MLS refereeing teams, are paid more than their junior counterparts and are paid on a sliding scale based on the number of matches they have officiated during their career in MLS. A senior center referee, for example, will now earn between $125,000 and $165,000.
This number includes a guaranteed 15 match fee, which the referee keeps even if he is injured or unable to officiate that many matches. If they supervise more than 15 matches – which is the case for many – their total earnings increase. The new contract between the league and its referees also provides for year-to-year salary increases. By the time the contract expires in 2030, the head referee who earned $165,000 in 2024 will earn $211,000.
While English and German civil servants enjoy some measure of security in the form of severance packages, the most senior MLS officials receive a maximum severance package of six months, while less experienced civil servants receive even less.
Additional contributors: Guillermo Rai, Peter Rutzler and Raphael Honigstein
(Top photo: Referee Tony Harrington awards Everton a penalty against Newcastle United on April 2. Lee Parker/CameraSport via Getty Images)