From Premier League to the Jackson

Saturday 5th April 2008, 9:29AM BST.

Jeff Pettitt refereeing a Jackson match at BPL. (Picture by Daniel Guerin, 0556077)

HE CALLS himself the ‘Renegade Ref’ but Jeff Pettitt could equally well be known as Mr Referee.

He took up the whistle because, he says, he wasn’t much of a player. ‘I’d say I was that bad that if we turned up two men short, I’d still be the substitute,’ he joked.

But when he first had a go at being the man in the middle, he really enjoyed it and moved through the ranks to officiating at the highest level. ‘If you like football, it’s the best place in the world to watch it.’ Eventually he gave up his job in a bank to run his own company supplying referees’ equipment.