Historic referee appointment in the Premier League

Sunny Singh Gill will become the first referee of Indian origin to officiate a Premier League match on Saturday after being appointed today, at 39 years oldfor Crystal Palace-Luton Town to take place at Selhurst Park in London.

“He will be the first British South Asian to referee a match in the competition,” the Premier League announced. Singh Gill follows the example of his father, Jarnail Singh Gill, who remains the only English league football referee to wear a turban.

His parents and siblings, also referees

Jarnail Singh Gill was born in India and moved to England with his mother and sister when he was three years old. After making his debut on August 10, 2004 in a Bristol Rovers-Bury Town team, he managed almost 200 games in all divisions of English football until 2010.

Sunny Singh Gill’s brother Bhupinder He is also a referee. According to the Premier League, Bhupinder is “the first Punjabi Sikh (follower of Sikhism, a monotheistic religion) to become an assistant referee” in the top flight of English football, specifically in a Southampton-Nottingham Forest match in January 2023.

“Football has always been a family thing,” Sunny Singh Gill told the English Football League (EFL) website last year. “We grew up as brothers and sisters who loved football and like most young children, we just wanted to play. But in our house it was a little different because when we entered primary school, we knew that our father would referee at the weekend .”

From school to grass

“There were times when I was the fourth official in the Premier League and “Our friends said they saw him on the ‘Match of the Day’ show.”recalls Sunny Singh Gill, who coached his first amateur match in the Sunday League when he was 17.

In 2021, Sunny and Bhupinder became the first referees of Indian origin to officiate both matches in the Championship, the second tier of English football.