EFL Cup referees — who books, and who lets it flow
Every card price has one official silently included in it — not one of the players. The appointment is public before kick-off, the record is measurable, and the effect on the cards markets is the largest single factor the model prices, larger than the derby, larger than the opponent. This page is the file: card and foul rates for every official on the current panel, with the sample sizes shown, because a tendency built on six matches is a rumour and one built on a hundred is a fact. The player cards guide explains how the model turns these numbers into a price.
Career rates across every season we hold, for each referee who took charge of an EFL Cup match in 26/27. Deliberately not a next-season panel prediction — officials come and go every summer, so we profile who actually officiated. League averages: 3.29 cards and 21.0 fouls per match, a 15.7% foul-to-card conversion.
This season's officials — small samples, read gently
These referees took charge in 26/27 but haven't yet built a record worth betting on — under 15 career matches, a card rate is mostly noise wearing a decimal point. We'd rather show you a thin sample labelled honestly than a confident number that hasn't been earned.
| Referee | Matches | 26/27 | Cards / match | Fouls / match |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Harry Wager | 2 | 2 | 5.00 | 23.0 |
| Oliver Yates | 6 | 1 | 4.50 | 22.3 |
| Edward Duckworth | 7 | 2 | 4.29 | 26.3 |
| Sebastian Stockbridge | 8 | 1 | 4.25 | 21.4 |
| Peter Bankes | 10 | 1 | 4.20 | 23.7 |
| Carl Brook | 6 | 1 | 4.00 | 21.8 |
| Robert Jones | 5 | 1 | 4.00 | 23.6 |
| Matt Donohue | 4 | 1 | 4.00 | 24.0 |
| Elliott Swallow | 2 | 2 | 4.00 | 29.5 |
| Farai Hallam | 2 | 1 | 4.00 | 22.5 |
| Richard Eley | 1 | 1 | 4.00 | 19.0 |
| Anthony Backhouse | 8 | 1 | 3.75 | 20.0 |
| Jarred Gillett | 7 | 1 | 3.57 | 19.7 |
| Thomas Parsons | 6 | 3 | 3.50 | 24.2 |
| Martin Coy | 2 | 1 | 3.50 | 20.0 |
| Leigh Doughty | 7 | 1 | 3.43 | 21.6 |
| Robert Madley | 7 | 1 | 3.43 | 19.7 |
| Lewis Smith | 9 | 1 | 3.33 | 18.1 |
| Adam Herczeg | 6 | 2 | 3.33 | 24.3 |
| Oliver Mackey | 3 | 1 | 3.33 | 27.0 |
| Craig Pawson | 5 | 1 | 3.20 | 21.6 |
| Tim Robinson | 7 | 1 | 3.14 | 19.7 |
| Andrew Kitchen | 7 | 1 | 3.00 | 20.1 |
| John Busby | 5 | 1 | 3.00 | 22.2 |
| Paul Howard | 3 | 1 | 3.00 | 25.7 |
| Paul Tierney | 3 | 1 | 3.00 | 20.3 |
| Andrew Humphries | 1 | 1 | 3.00 | 32.0 |
| Elliot Bell | 6 | 3 | 2.83 | 21.7 |
| Tom Nield | 10 | 1 | 2.80 | 21.7 |
| Andy Madley | 5 | 1 | 2.80 | 16.6 |
| Dean Whitestone | 4 | 1 | 2.75 | 20.5 |
| Benjamin Speedie | 7 | 2 | 2.71 | 18.3 |
| Thomas Bramall | 9 | 1 | 2.67 | 18.9 |
| Tony Harrington | 8 | 2 | 2.63 | 17.0 |
| Will Finnie | 8 | 1 | 2.63 | 20.5 |
| Gavin Ward | 7 | 3 | 2.57 | 21.4 |
| Josh Smith | 6 | 1 | 2.17 | 19.7 |
| Declan Brown | 1 | 1 | 2.00 | 16.0 |
| David Webb | 6 | 2 | 1.33 | 16.7 |
| Ruebyn Ricardo | 4 | 3 | 1.25 | 20.0 |
| Isaac Searle | 1 | 1 | 1.00 | 16.0 |
How the EFL Cup compares
The EFL Cup is the most lenient of the leagues we cover — 3.29 cards a match against La Liga's 4.86, and the fewest fouls at 21.0 a game.
| League | Cards / match | Fouls / match | Foul → card |
|---|---|---|---|
| Premier League | 4.08 | 21.9 | 18.6% |
| Bundesliga | 4.07 | 22.1 | 18.4% |
| UEFA Champions League | 3.96 | 21.9 | 18.0% |
| Championship | 4.01 | 21.9 | 18.3% |
| EFL Cup you're here | 3.29 | 21.0 | 15.7% |
| UEFA Europa League | 4.55 | 24.2 | 18.8% |
| La Liga | 4.86 | 25.4 | 19.1% |
| Ligue 1 | 3.87 | 24.5 | 15.8% |
| UEFA Nations League | 3.97 | 22.5 | 17.7% |
| Serie A | 4.19 | 24.7 | 16.9% |
Career rates across every season we hold, built the same way in each competition. Stricter isn't better or worse — it's the baseline each referee on this page is measured against.
Other officials on record
Career records the model still uses for the matches each one covers. The season shown is the last with an EFL Cup match on record.
David Coote retired John Brooks 25/26 Michael Salisbury 25/26 Samuel Barrott 25/26 Tom Reeves 25/26 Simon Hooper 25/26 Thomas Kirk 25/26 Ben Toner 24/25 David Rock 25/26 Graham Scott 23/24 Simon Mather 25/26 Charles Breakspear 24/25 Chris Kavanagh 25/26 Darren Bond 24/25 Darren England 25/26 James Bell 24/25 Matthew Corlett 25/26 Oliver Langford 25/26 Ross Joyce 25/26 Scott Oldham 25/26 Sunny Sukhvir Gill 24/25 Christopher Pollard 23/24 Craig Hicks 25/26 Sam Allison 24/25 Stuart Attwell 25/26 Geoff Eltringham 24/25 Jacob Miles 25/26 James Linington 25/26 Peter Wright 23/24 Alan Young 25/26 Alex Chilowicz 24/25 Andre Marriner 22/23 Andy Davies 24/25 Andy Haines 22/23 Ben Speedie 23/24 Bobby Madden 22/23 Jeremy Simpson 23/24 Keith Stroud 24/25 Lee Swabey 22/23 Neil Hair 25/26 Sam Purkiss 23/24 Scott Jackson 24/25 Scott Simpson 24/25 Stephen Martin 25/26 Zac Kennard-Kettle 25/26 Andy Woolmer 22/23 Bannister, Aaron 25/26 Ben Atkinson 24/25 Daniel Middleton 23/24 Darren Drysdale 25/26 Declan Bourne 24/25 James Linnington 24/25 James Oldham 22/23 Martin Woods 23/24 Matthew Russell 25/26 Michael Oliver 22/23 Rob Lewis 22/23 Scott Tallis 24/25
What to do with this
A referee tendency tips a bet; it doesn't decide one. The archetypal card edge is a confluence — a combative midfielder, a strict official, a fixture with an edge to it — and the referee column is one input among several, applied to a player's own booking rate rather than replacing it. It's also worth saying plainly: the referee effect is strongest in the player to-be-carded market — and in the EFL Cup we don't price cards at all: the card model didn't beat the base rate when we tested it here, so the referee record is shown as a record, not turned into a price. Anyone selling referee stats as a printing press is selling the fun half.
Frequently asked
How many referees are there in the EFL Cup?
The list above shows every official who took charge of an EFL Cup match in 26/27 — 41 of them. None has refereed 15 EFL Cup matches yet, so every record here is still a small sample. The panel churns every summer, so the honest answer is whoever actually officiated — which is what this page shows, updated as the season runs.
Do referees really move card prices?
More than any other single factor in the player cards market. The list above shows each EFL Cup official's cards a match, against an EFL Cup average of 3.29 — and because the appointment is public before kick-off, it's measurable in advance.
Why is this the 26/27 panel?
Because it's the one we can stand behind. The panel churns every summer — promotions, retirements, removals — so a page of officials nobody has appointed yet is partly fiction, and a season only a few matches old can't tell you who is on it either. We profile the officials who actually took charge of an EFL Cup match in 26/27, with career numbers across every season we hold, and the page moves on once the new season has enough behind it.
Descriptive rates from public match data, shown with sample sizes for context. The model applies shrinkage and a confidence discount before any of this touches a price, and grades itself in public on the track record. 18+ — please gamble responsibly.