Five matchweeks into the season, no referee has a sample worth pricing off. Stuart Attwell has refereed three Premier League games in 2026/27 and shown 19 yellows, 6.33 a game. Across 28 games over two seasons his rate is 4.86. Luca Pairetto is the mirror image: 4.67 over two seasons, but only 1.5 in two games this term. Which number you read changes the answer.
So everywhere in this piece we use the two most recent seasons and a minimum of 10 games, the same two-season window the Football Referee Stats 2026/27 table averages over, at the time of writing. The cut matters most at the top of the table. Sort by yellow cards per game and the first name on five of the six league pages has refereed four games or fewer in that league: Lewis Smith in the Premier League (one game, six yellows) and Paride Tremolada in Serie A (three games, 6.67).
Sorted by yellow cards per game (Yel), no sample filter. Gms is games refereed in that league.
The exception is Ligue 1, where Bastien Dechepy leads on a real sample (18 games, 4.56). Apply the 10-game floor and you are left with 134 referees across the six leagues, and a very different leaderboard. Every referee below links to their own profile page, with the full match history, home and away card splits and next appointment.
The table tracks a handful of numbers per referee, and each one means something specific.
Yellow cards shown per match, averaged across the referee's tracked games. The yellow cards per game by referee column is the one most people sort by, and the one most affected by small samples. League averages sit in a narrow band.
Fouls whistled per match. This is where the leagues differ most: 25.2 a game in La Liga and 25 in Serie A, against 21 in the Bundesliga and 21.7 in the Championship. The Premier League is on 22.2 and Ligue 1 on 24.2. Yellows run from 3.7 (Serie A, Ligue 1) through 3.8 (Championship) and 3.9 (Premier League, Bundesliga) to 4.4 in La Liga.
The page also shows total cards per game, which includes reds, and the share of a referee's games that finished over 3.5, 4.5 and 5.5 cards. That share is the over/under rate: how often a referee's matches have cleared a bookmaker-style line. Each referee also carries a strictness label (lenient, average or strict) set by the page.
With the 10-game floor in place, here is the strictest referee in each league, first this term and then across two seasons. Each league has its own referee stats across all six leagues page: Premier League, La Liga, Bundesliga, Serie A, Ligue 1 and Championship.
Yellows per game, games in brackets. This term against two seasons.
Read the two columns together. Each this-term figure rests on two or three games. Only the La Liga leader is close to his two-season rate (5.67 against 5.45); Attwell is well above his (6.33 against 4.86) and Pairetto far below (1.50 against 4.67), while the other three sit 0.6 to 0.9 under. Here is the other end of each league, with the same 10-game floor.
Fewest yellow cards per game (Yel) among referees with 10 or more games (Gms).
| League | Referee | Gms | Yel |
|---|---|---|---|
| Premier League | Pawson | 23 | 2.78 |
| La Liga | Hernández M. | 23 | 2.91 |
| Bundesliga | Badstübner | 16 | 2.25 |
| Serie A | Feliciani | 14 | 2.57 |
| Ligue 1 | Buquet | 20 | 2.95 |
| Championship | Speedie | 10 | 2.50 |
The spread inside a league is bigger than the spread between leagues. In the Bundesliga Sören Storks and Tobias Welz both average 4.93 yellows over 14 games, while Florian Badstübner averages 2.25 over 16, less than half. In La Liga, Alejandro José Hernández Hernández averages 5.45 over 22 games against 2.91 for Francisco José Hernández Maeso over 23.
The Premier League has the same split. Stuart Attwell averages 4.86 over 28 games and Craig Pawson 2.78 over 23. Do Championship referees book more than Premier League officials? On the page's league averages, no: 3.8 yellows and 21.7 fouls a game in the Championship against 3.9 and 22.2 in the Premier League. The league tells you little; the referee tells you a lot.
A common view is that a referee who lets fouls go will show fewer cards. The page's numbers do not back it up. Across the 134 referees with 10 or more games, the correlation between fouls per game and yellows per game is 0.28: weakly positive, so referees who whistle more fouls tend to book slightly more, not fewer.
Correlation of fouls and yellows per game, referees with 10+ games.
| League | Referees | Correlation |
|---|---|---|
| Premier League | 18 | 0.18 |
| La Liga | 20 | 0.07 |
| Bundesliga | 24 | 0.30 |
| Serie A | 25 | 0.48 |
| Ligue 1 | 20 | 0.45 |
| Championship | 27 | 0.46 |
| All six | 134 | 0.28 |
The link is strongest in Serie A, Ligue 1 and the Championship (0.45 to 0.48) and almost absent in La Liga (0.07). Dividing the page's two columns shows how far referees differ in how quickly a foul becomes a card: Marco Di Bello shows one yellow for every 9.6 fouls on the page, Sören Storks one for every 3.9. That ratio, not the foul count on its own, is what separates a high-card referee from a busy one.
For a cards market the useful number is the over/under rate, because it measures how often a referee's games have actually cleared the line. Take the Premier League pair above. Stuart Attwell's games finished over 3.5 cards 79% of the time and over 4.5 cards 71% of the time. Craig Pawson's finished over 3.5 in 30% and over 4.5 in just 13%. Attwell's profile adds that both teams were booked in 89% of his games, and that his last five average 5.8 yellows. Same league, same line, completely different history. You can filter every referee by these over/under card rates on Statz.
Fouls per game still matters for a different bet. A referee's foul count sets the context for team and player foul markets, as in our look at how many fouls Arsenal commit and draw. The live Statz bet builder below shows the current legs.
Caution on all of it: two seasons is a limited record, over/under rates move with every game, and a 10-game referee has fewer data points than a 30-game one. Treat the rate as context for a price, not a reason on its own.
The page lists each referee's next fixture, which makes the pre-match check quick: find the match, then read the referee's yellows and over 4.5 rate. At the time of writing these appointments pair a referee with 10+ games and 4.4 or more yellows per game with a match this weekend.
Referees with 10+ games and 4.4+ yellows per game, at the time of writing.
At the other end, Craig Pawson takes Aston Villa v Brentford on Saturday (2.78 yellows) and Sven Jablonski has Augsburg v Bayern Munich (2.74 over 19 games). Appointments change, so check the table before acting on any of this.
Stuart Attwell leads the Premier League among referees with 10 or more games in 2026/27, at 4.86 yellows per game over 28 games. The raw leader on that page, Lewis Smith, has refereed only one Premier League game.
Open the Statz referee table for 2026/27, find the match in the next fixture column and read the fouls per game figure beside the referee's name. Averages cover 2025/26 and 2026/27 and update after each matchweek.
It is the share of a referee's tracked games that finished over a card line, such as 3.5 or 4.5 total cards. Stuart Attwell's games finished over 4.5 cards 71% of the time, against 13% for Craig Pawson.
No. On the page's 2026/27 averages, Championship referees show 3.8 yellow cards and whistle 21.7 fouls per game, against 3.9 and 22.2 in the Premier League. The gap between individual referees is far larger than the gap between leagues.
For current figures on every referee, check the full referee fixture list and card stats on Statz.