Every referee number below is derived from our own match data over a rolling two-season window, not a stored season table. That matters in September: four rounds into a campaign, a referee's current-season average is built on two or three games and tells you nothing. The sample sizes are published beside every name so you can judge for yourself.
Two lists, because they are not the same referees. Cards first, then the number almost nobody publishes.
| Fixture | Referee | Games | Cards/game |
|---|---|---|---|
| St Mirren v Dundee United | David Dickinson | 28 | 4.96 |
| Everton v Ipswich Town | Stuart Attwell | 30 | 4.73 |
| Bromley v Huddersfield Town | Carl Brook | 36 | 4.53 |
| Colchester United v Cheltenham Town | Alan Young | 21 | 4.52 |
| Barnsley v Leicester City | Seb Stockbridge | 42 | 4.43 |
| Dundee v Motherwell | Ross Hardie | 12 | 4.42 |
| Celtic v Rangers | John Beaton | 28 | 4.36 |
| Kilmarnock v Hearts | Duncan Nicolson | 20 | 4.35 |
| Brighton & Hove Albion v Arsenal | Darren England | 32 | 4.28 |
| Hibernian v Aberdeen | N. Walsh | 43 | 4.26 |
Scotland supplies five of the ten. Dickinson, Hardie, Beaton, Nicolson and Walsh are all above 4.2, and the Scottish Premiership as a whole runs hotter than the English leagues on this measure. If you only look at England you are missing where the cards actually are.
The one to note is Celtic against Rangers. John Beaton has 4.36 across 28 games and gets the biggest domestic fixture of the weekend - a game that does not need help to produce bookings.
Ross Hardie's 12 games and Emily Heaslip's 13 are the thinnest samples on the list. Treat both as indicative rather than settled.
Cards per game tells you how busy a referee's notebook is. It does not tell you how much he tolerates first. Divide fouls by cards and you get that, and it splits the same list in a completely different order.
| Referee | Fixture | Fouls per card |
|---|---|---|
| Isaac Searle | Exeter City v Tranmere Rovers | 4.2 |
| Alan Young | Colchester United v Cheltenham Town | 4.6 |
| Stuart Attwell | Everton v Ipswich Town | 4.7 |
| David Dickinson | St Mirren v Dundee United | 4.8 |
| Michael Oliver | AFC Bournemouth v Liverpool | 6.4 |
| Ben Toner | Sheffield Wednesday v Stockport County | 6.4 |
| Stephen Parkinson | Rochdale v Oldham Athletic | 7.2 |
Isaac Searle books a player every 4.2 fouls. Stephen Parkinson lets 7.2 go first. That is close to double, and it is the single most useful thing on this page if you are looking at a card market.
Searle is the clearest case of why the two lists disagree. He is only mid-table on cards per game at 4.00, because he referees low-foul games - 16.85 a match, the lowest of any official this weekend. Per foul committed, he is the strictest whistle in the country.
Michael Oliver is the opposite and has the largest sample of anyone here at 56 games: 3.63 cards from 23.29 fouls. He gets AFC Bournemouth against Liverpool and he lets a lot go.
The season table of appointments is on the Premier League referees page, and every official has their own record at the referee index.
Our bookings projections do not currently account for the referee at all. A card-heavy official and a lenient one produce the same model number for the same fixture, which means a hot whistle is systematically under-rated on our own card pages until that changes.
That is why this column exists as a separate read. Use the model for who commits the fouls and this page for who punishes them. Today's slips are on the Daily Acca, which carries a settled public record of every one.
Champions League tickets up for grabs: bet365 - a Statz partner - has launched its Big Ticket Giveaway ballot for the 2026/27 UEFA Champions League, with matchday tickets to be won. Enter the ballot here. 18+. New and eligible customers; registration required; entry details and full terms on the ballot page. T&Cs apply | begambleaware.org
18+. Please gamble responsibly - begambleaware.org. Referee figures derived from our own match database over a rolling two-season window to 18 September 2026.