The referee who became a role model after bouncing back from Diaz error

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Throughout 2026, England has regularly been given some of English football's biggest matches - including Manchester City's 1-0 win over Chelsea in the FA Cup final."So we flip it," England says, moving the conversation along to the game at Wembley. The game has changed immeasurably in the 11 years since England swapped his flag for a whistle.England says referees are now "dressed like RoboCop" as they carry so much additional equipment, such as communication devices.The biggest change has been the introduction of VAR, which had only been in the Premier League for a few months when England refereed Southampton v Wolves in January 2020."It's certainly not changed the way I make decisions," England insists.

"You only do it once and it's a real honour."VAR has added a huge amount of additional scrutiny on officials, not just from the press.England says he will get quizzed by parents on the school run about decisions over the weekend - and not just his own. "If you want to go searching for good feedback on social media and you're listening to phone-ins, you probably won't find much," England says."That can have an impact on how you perform on the field."I don't have social media, I made a decision not to.

Then, in 2015 at the age of 28, he decided to start again in the National League as a referee and work back up.Within four and a half years, he would take charge of his first Premier League fixture."I had the chance of potentially going to tournaments (as an assistant), or do I back myself as a referee?" England says. So we have to keep on improving as well."After the honour of taking charge of the FA Cup final, does England have any other goals in his career on the field?"When I don't have targets, that's probably time to come off the field," he says."I want to do all the finals that we can do.