Stuart Attwell books a Premier League player every 4.59 fouls. Paul Tierney lets 6.21 go first. That gap – more than a third more leeway from one official than another – is the most useful referee statistic in football betting, and almost nobody publishes it.
What does get published is a career card average, and for nine of the officials we examined it was wrong every time. Not slightly wrong: wrong by an average of 1.19 cards a game, and wrong in a way that reverses the running order.
Last updated: 20 August 2026.
Premier League Referee Card Stats
| Referee | Cards per game | Fouls per game | Fouls per card |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stuart Attwell | 4.61 | 21.15 | 4.59 |
| Jarred Gillett | 4.17 | 20.00 | 5.20 |
| Peter Bankes | 4.14 | 21.56 | 5.23 |
| Darren England | 4.55 | 22.01 | 5.29 |
| Tom Bramall | 4.30 | 22.25 | 5.41 |
| Robert Jones | 4.52 | 22.45 | 5.51 |
| Michael Oliver | 3.90 | 22.37 | 5.74 |
| Paul Tierney | 3.76 | 21.90 | 6.21 |
Cards per game covers each official’s last three Premier League seasons. Fouls per card is calculated across their full Premier League career, which for Michael Oliver runs to 428 matches and for Tom Bramall 52.
Which Premier League Referee Books the Most Players?
Stuart Attwell, at 4.61 yellow cards a game across his last three Premier League seasons, from 239 matches in the competition. Darren England is next on 4.55 and Robert Jones on 4.52, so three officials sit above four and a half bookings a match.
Paul Tierney books the fewest at 3.76, with Michael Oliver on 3.90. Those two are the only officials in our set averaging below four.
The spread is 0.85 cards a game between the strictest and the mildest — roughly one extra booking every match, which is enough to move an over 3.5 cards market from a coin flip to a clear favourite.
Why Are Published Referee Card Averages Misleading?
Because they cover a referee’s entire career, and a career includes whatever else that official has worked. Non-league football, youth matches, the Champions League and international fixtures all go into one number, and none of them tells you what he does in the Premier League.
Darren England’s published average is 2.91. His Premier League rate is 4.55. The difference is sixty National League fixtures between 2010 and 2015 where he gave almost no cards at all, still weighing down a figure quoted for a Premier League match a decade later.
It runs the other way too. Michael Oliver’s published 3.32 makes him look strict. He has refereed almost nothing but Premier League football since 2010, and his career figure is pulled up by Champions League and international work where he averages 4.50 and 5.00. Strip those out and he is the mildest official in our set.
How Wrong Are the Published Figures?
| Referee | Published | Premier League | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Michael Oliver | 3.32 | 3.90 | +0.58 |
| Paul Tierney | 2.85 | 3.76 | +0.91 |
| Peter Bankes | 2.94 | 4.14 | +1.20 |
| Jarred Gillett | 3.45 | 4.17 | +0.72 |
| Tom Bramall | 2.73 | 4.30 | +1.57 |
| Robert Jones | 2.92 | 4.52 | +1.60 |
| Darren England | 2.91 | 4.55 | +1.64 |
| Stuart Attwell | 3.28 | 4.61 | +1.33 |
Every one of the eight is understated, and the average error is 1.19 cards a game. On a market priced around three and a half cards, that is the difference between a bet and a pass.
The size of the error tracks how much other football each man has refereed. Michael Oliver is out by the least because he has done the least elsewhere. Tom Bramall is out by 1.57 because 69 of his matches were in the National League and National League North, where he averaged 0.00 cards across 29 of them.
Does the Ranking Change?
Almost completely. Ordered by the published figure, Tom Bramall is the mildest official in our set and Jarred Gillett the strictest. Ordered by their actual Premier League records, Bramall sits fifth of eight and Gillett fourth — both close to the middle rather than at either end.
| By published figure | By Premier League record | |
|---|---|---|
| Mildest | Tom Bramall | Paul Tierney |
| 2nd | Paul Tierney | Michael Oliver |
| 3rd | Darren England | Peter Bankes |
| 4th | Robert Jones | Jarred Gillett |
| 5th | Peter Bankes | Tom Bramall |
| 6th | Stuart Attwell | Robert Jones |
| 7th | Michael Oliver | Darren England |
| Strictest | Jarred Gillett | Stuart Attwell |
Michael Oliver moves from seventh to second. Darren England moves from third to seventh. A bettor choosing a fixture on the published numbers would be picking close to the opposite of what they intended.
What Is Fouls Per Card and Why Does It Matter?
It is the number of fouls a referee allows before producing a yellow card, and it separates two things a raw card average runs together: how strict an official actually is, and how scrappy the matches he happened to be given were.
A referee handling a bad-tempered game will show more cards without being any stricter. Dividing cards by fouls removes that.
Stuart Attwell books after 4.59 fouls. Paul Tierney allows 6.21. Attwell also oversees fewer fouls per match than most — 21.15 against Robert Jones’s 22.45 — so he is not simply refereeing rougher fixtures. He punishes sooner.
How Should You Use Referee Card Stats When Betting?
Compare the referee’s figure against the two teams’ own records rather than using either alone. Where they agree, the card market is worth a price. Where they disagree, the official’s average is drawn from a far larger sample than one fixture and usually carries more weight.
Two things worth knowing before you do. Use the competition-specific figure, not the career one — that is the whole point of this page. And check the sample: Tom Bramall’s Premier League record runs to 52 matches, Michael Oliver’s to 428, and a figure built on fifty games moves more than one built on four hundred.
Where Does This Data Come From?
Match-level card and foul counts for every Premier League fixture each official has taken charge of, broken down by season and competition, then aggregated by us. Cards per game covers the last three Premier League seasons; fouls per card covers the full Premier League career.
We publish the sample size alongside every figure because it matters, and we update the table at the end of each season.
Referee Card Stats FAQ
Which Premier League referee gives the most yellow cards?
Stuart Attwell, at 4.61 a game across his last three Premier League seasons. He also books soonest of the eight, producing a card every 4.59 fouls — nearly a third quicker than Paul Tierney at the other end of the scale, who allows 6.21.
Which Premier League referee gives the fewest cards?
Paul Tierney, at 3.76 yellow cards a game, with Michael Oliver next on 3.90. Both are published as stricter than they are, because their career averages fold in European and international fixtures where card counts run considerably higher than in the Premier League.
Do referees book more now than they used to?
Yes. Every one of the nine officials we examined averages more cards across their last three Premier League seasons than across their full career in the competition, by 0.32 a game on average. Even a competition-correct career figure lags what an official is doing now.
More Betting Guides
For how we use these figures in practice, see our cards tips and the fixture-by-fixture breakdowns on our bet builder tips page.
Live Card Tips
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Andy Clark is a British betting analyst and the founder and editor of Thatsagoal, a UK sports betting comparison site operated by Thatsagoal Media Limited. He has over 20 years of betting experience across football and horse racing, and personally tests every bookmaker account reviewed on the site.
