Uriah Rennie RIP

First black Premier League ref so deserves recognition for that alone. Also incredibly fit. But in pre VAR days he made many dubious decisions.
 
Uriah was a perfectly OK ref. Sad that he died at such an early age.
I do hope OldFox that you aren't calling for the retention of the awful VAR ?
 
Seems a different age now but pre VAR we used to argue about refs' decisions. Now we argue about VAR decisions. Plus ca change, etc.

If VAR were only used as we were led to believe originally for clear and obvious errors it might be OK. Instead it is being used by remote jobsworths to micro manage games and give toenail offsides. If it takes VAR several minutes to decide - as it often does - how can it be a clear error?

I won't say any more about Rennie out of respect but I don't think he was PL managers' favourite.
 
Last edited:
I was a County referee for 12 years, I once met a referee who was assistant to Uriah Rennie at some top level games, he said he was top level, he was really fit and was up there on merit. He said he was a really good bloke, intelligent and was succesful outside football. He was only 65 years old, he pased away after a neurological condition left him paralysed from the waist down. Life is a lottery, RIP Uriah, what a life!
 
I ran The Great North Run 2005ish,he was running it for charity nice bloke had time to chat,obviously after the race RIP.
 
RIP - No age at all.. A genuine trail blazer for persons of colour looking to break into the game officiating wise.

My one abiding memory of his refereeing is I think he waved play on when Matt Elliott knocked Michael Owen out cold!
 
RIP!

He was mentioned in a great podcast by Gerry Taggart when the latter (then at Stoke) went for Dennis Wise and nearly strangled him. Apparently, Uriah and Gerry knew each other from the golf course, and Gerry got away with a yellow.

For that alone, he deserves credit!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top