Topics: Premier League
A Premier League referee has been 'relegated' as UEFA released a new list categorising officials.
The English top flight have two representatives at Euro 2024 in Anthony Taylor and Michael Oliver, with Stuart Attwell and David Coote on VAR duty.
Taylor and Oliver are the only two English refs on the elite list, meaning they also take charge of games in the Champions League and Europa League.
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The pair remain in that some group alongside three refs from Germany, Spain, Italy and France but according to Dale Johnson from ESPN, there have been changes across the board.
John Brooks, statistically the best referee in the Premier League last season, has been promoted to the "first" list - following on from a step up in 2021.
He joins Chris Kavanagh in the two-person list but it's bad news for Craig Pawson, as he has been demoted to the "second list".
The 45-year-old, who has been a Premier League referee since 2013, is now on the same level as Attwell, Darren England, Jarred Gillett, Rob Jones and Andy Madley.
Overall, England have four in the first two tiers of UEFA's referees - compared to six from Germany, France and Italy and five from Spain and Romania.
The news comes after England's referees came in for criticism for disallowing what would have been a winning goal from the Netherlands against France.
Xavi Simons had the ball in the net but his strike was chalked off after it was deemed that Denzel Dumfries, who was offside, had interfered with play.
That was despite Mike Maignan not making an attempt to dive for the effort.
Taylor disallowed the goal after speaking with his assistant and stuck to the decision after a lengthy VAR review involving Attwell.
Speaking post-match, Netherlands skipper Virgil van Dijk said: "We scored a goal that is a fair goal. He had no chance to get into that corner. But yeah, the English referee decided to disallow it."
