Neil Swarbrick

Controversy

Referee After a match between Sheffield Wednesday and Aston Villa on 24 February 2018, Swarbrick attracted criticism for his performance. In the game, he awarded 16 fouls to the away side, and only one to home side, which was seen as an unfair imbalance between the two sides. Swarbrick also turned down a penalty appeal for Wednesday, Villa defender John Terry appeared to get away with what looked like a red card offence for a foul on striker Atdhe Nuhiu, and he awarded a questionable late penalty to Villa. His performance was defended by former Premier League referee Roger Dilkes.

VAR Referee He has also been involved in some controversies as a VAR referee. One such incident where this was called into question was during the all Premier League FA Cup tie between Brighton and Liverpool. He made another questionable call in the February 2023 Premier League tie between West Ham vs Chelsea missing a blatant handball in the penalty box, which resulted in the PGMOL dropping him from the next round of Premier League games as a VAR referee.

Statistics Season Games Total per game Total per game 2005/06 29 57 1.97 2 0.07 2006/07 34 96 2.82 9 0.26 2007/08 38 76 2.00 8 0.21 2008/09 36 82 2.28 4 0.11 2009/10 35 104 2.97 8 0.23 2010/11 40 108 2.70 8 0.20 2011/12 30 107 3.57 7 0.23 2012/13 31 111 3.58 1 0.03