Sunny Singh Gill will become the first British South Asian to referee a Premier League match this weekend.
Singh Gill has been appointed to take charge of Crystal Palace against Luton on Saturday, Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) has announced.
He took charge of his first Sunday League match aged only 17, and in April 2021 both he and his brother Bhupinder became the first pair of British South Asians to officiate in the same Championship match.
His father, Jarnail Singh, was the first EFL referee to wear a turban when he took charge of Bristol Rovers v Bury in August 2004. Singh senior went on to referee almost 200 EFL matches up to 2010.
In an interview published on the Premier League’s website last month, Sunny Singh Gill said: “You want the younger generation to look at you and think ‘I can also do it’.
“If parents are looking at us thinking, ‘Wow, we have Asian kids in the Premier League officiating games, my son can give that a go, my daughter can give that a go…’
Singh Gill took charge of his first EFL match in August 2022, a League Two fixture between Northampton and Hartlepool.
“Football has always run in the family,” he added in an interview with the EFL published last season.
“Me and my brother grew up loving the game and like most young kids, we just wanted to play but in our household it was a bit different because when we were going to primary school, we knew our dad was going out to referee on a weekend.
“There were times he was a fourth official in the Premier League and our friends would say they saw him on Match of the Day!”
