Paul Tierney
The independent Key Match Incidents panel has reviewed 39 of those matches and confirmed 6 errors in them. Everything below is a count: RefCard publishes errors, not an accuracy percentage, because no source publishes the denominator such a figure would need.
Season by season
| Season | Matches | Fouls/game | Yellows/game | Reds/game | Penalties | Confirmed errors |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-27 | 2 | 22.0 | 2.00 | 0.00 | 0 | 0 |
| 2025-26 | 12 | 20.2 | 3.33 | 0.17 | 1 | 2 |
| 2023-24 | 25 | 21.8 | 3.68 | 0.12 | 4 | 4 |
| 2022-23 | 30 | 21.0 | 3.80 | 0.07 | —‡ | — |
| 2021-22 | 27 | 21.6 | 3.81 | 0.19 | —‡ | — |
| 2020-21 | 21 | 24.7 | 3.90 | 0.14 | —‡ | — |
| 2019-20 | 25 | 23.9 | 3.00 | 0.12 | —‡ | — |
| 2018-19 | 24 | 20.3 | 3.42 | 0.04 | —‡ | — |
| 2017-18 | 16 | 22.1 | 2.31 | 0.00 | —‡ | — |
| 2016-17 | 10 | 23.1 | 2.90 | 0.20 | —‡ | — |
| 2015-16 | 4 | 23.2 | 3.00 | 0.00 | —‡ | — |
| 2014-15 | 1 | 18.0 | 3.00 | 0.00 | —‡ | — |
Confirmed errors are only available from 2023-24, when the Key Match Incidents panel began. Earlier seasons show the disciplinary record only. ‡ Penalties are recorded from 2023-24 onward; a dash means the figure was never collected for that season, not that none were given.
Cards and fouls
The career average is 3.42 yellow cards a game, against a league median of 3.67 for rated referees, on 22.0 fouls a game.
Added time
6.5 minutes of second-half added time on average, against a league median of 7.2. A model of each match's substitutions, cards and goals expects 6.5 from these fixtures — about what those stoppages predict.
Added time is captured from 2024-25 onward, over the 10 matches where we hold it — a shorter window than the figures above.
Club by club
Every club refereed at least three times, with that club's own record in those matches and the cards it took.
| Club | Matches | W–D–L | Yellows | Per game |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Liverpool | 28 | 18–7–3 | 47 | 1.68 |
| Manchester City | 26 | 23–2–1 | 35 | 1.35 |
| Manchester United | 21 | 11–3–7 | 40 | 1.90 |
| Arsenal | 20 | 9–6–5 | 37 | 1.85 |
| Crystal Palace | 19 | 6–7–6 | 34 | 1.79 |
| Chelsea | 19 | 13–2–4 | 28 | 1.47 |
| Everton | 18 | 8–2–8 | 32 | 1.78 |
| Newcastle | 18 | 5–5–8 | 32 | 1.78 |
| Burnley | 18 | 4–4–10 | 29 | 1.61 |
| Tottenham | 18 | 4–6–8 | 31 | 1.72 |
| West Ham | 17 | 6–5–6 | 28 | 1.65 |
| Bournemouth | 16 | 7–3–6 | 30 | 1.88 |
| Watford | 14 | 4–3–7 | 18 | 1.29 |
| Southampton | 14 | 2–3–9 | 28 | 2.00 |
| Leicester | 13 | 3–2–8 | 21 | 1.62 |
| Wolves | 13 | 4–5–4 | 28 | 2.15 |
| Leeds | 13 | 5–2–6 | 28 | 2.15 |
| Aston Villa | 12 | 3–2–7 | 16 | 1.33 |
| West Brom | 11 | 1–5–5 | 18 | 1.64 |
| Fulham | 11 | 1–4–6 | 22 | 2.00 |
| Brighton | 9 | 4–2–3 | 9 | 1.00 |
| Nottingham Forest | 9 | 2–3–4 | 19 | 2.11 |
| Brentford | 7 | 1–3–3 | 10 | 1.43 |
| Norwich | 5 | 1–2–2 | 8 | 1.60 |
| Sheffield Utd | 5 | 1–0–4 | 9 | 1.80 |
| Swansea | 4 | 3–1–0 | 5 | 1.25 |
| Huddersfield | 4 | 0–1–3 | 11 | 2.75 |
| Hull | 3 | 0–2–1 | 3 | 1.00 |
| Sunderland | 3 | 1–1–1 | 6 | 2.00 |
The W–D–L is the club's. Nothing here is evidence of bias — a difference this size is what chance looks like. See how that was measured.
Panel review
2026-27
The panel reviewed one of Paul Tierney’s decisions this season, and it was upheld.
At VAR, the same 1 decision: 1 correct, 0 incorrect. The VAR layer is a separate official’s work and is never attributed to the referee.
1 further decision in these matches was led by an assistant referee. The League names the role and not the official, so it is counted for the match and not against a referee.
- Everton v Crystal Palace · 41:42 — Penalty not awarded. Handball appeal against Richards (CRY)
The panel upheld (5-0). “The Referee's call of no penalty for a potential handball offence against Richards was supported. The ball deflected off his own body changing trajectory before making contact with his arm.”
Panel-confirmed errors
- 2025-26 · Chelsea v Newcastle — on-field error below the clear-and-obvious threshold
- 2025-26 · Arsenal v Burnley · 69' — VAR missed an on-field error
- 2023-24 · Nottingham Forest v Brentford — VAR missed an on-field error
- 2023-24 · Burnley v Liverpool — VAR missed an on-field error