Walsall-Chesterfield referee is former prison officer who made Premier League history

Sunny Singh Gill will be the man in the middle when the Spireites take on the Sadlers at the Bescot Stadium this Saturday.

The official, who is a former prison officer at Feltham Prison and Young Offender Institution, made headlines when he became the first British South Asian to referee a Premier League fixture in March 2024 when he oversaw Crystal Palace against Luton Town.

Gill has taken charge of four other League Two fixtures this season, as well as nine in League One and four in the Championship.

Officiating clearly runs in the family, his dad Jarnail was the first referee in the English leagues to wear a turban, taking charge of 150 matches between 2004 and 2010. And his brother Bhupinder became the first Sikh-Punjabi to be selected as an assistant referee in the top-flight when he ran the line in the match between Southampton and Nottingham Forest in January 2023.

“Football has always run in the family,” Sunny told the EFL. “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!”