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Attwell Portman Road's First Ever VAR Official - Ipswich Town News

The Premier League has confirmed the referee and assistants for Saturday’s season opener against Liverpool, plus Portman Road’s first ever VAR officials.

The game will be refereed by the West Sussex-based Tim Robinson, an experienced official, who was added to the Select Group 1 last season but has been taking charge of Premier League matches since 2019.

Robinson’s most recent Town match was the 2-1 home victory over Shrewsbury in League One in November 2020, a game in which he awarded the Shrews a fourth-minute penalty after Shaun Whalley was tripped by Mark McGuinness.

Tim Wood and Steve Meredith are the assistants and Keith Stroud the fourth official.

Long-serving top-flight official Stuart Attwell will become Portman Road’s first ever VAR official with Harry Lennard his assistant.

Attwell’s most recent Blues match was the 1-0 win at Blackburn in March in which he ruled out three Rovers goals, while Town ought to have been awarded an early penalty when Nathan Broadhead was pulled back by Callum Brittain.

Installing the cameras and other hardware for VAR was one of the many projects which has been carried out at Portman Road over the summer.

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