James Bell, the referee slated to take charge of Town’s game at home to Charlton on Saturday, is a fan of the Blues’ automatic promotion rivals Sheffield Wednesday, it has emerged.

Bell is listed on the EFL’s website as the man due to be in the middle for Town’s game against the Addicks.

The Sheffield-born official’s support of the Owls was revealed by Plymouth boss and one-time Wednesday striker Ryan Lowe in May 2021 after Argyle - coincidentally another of the challengers for a top-two place - had been beaten 3-1 by Sunderland at Home Park.

Bell had shown Lowe a yellow card during the game for complaints regarding the Black Cats' first goal and afterwards the Pilgrims manager revealed a conversation between the two which had taken place prior to the match.

“He was alright speaking to me before the game,” Lowe told Plymouth Live. “He was a Sheffield Wednesday fan and couldn’t wait to tell he used to sing my name on the Kop, and stuff like that. So I’m spending time with him, showing a bit of respect, and he’s talking fine to me.

“Then I wanted to talk to him at half-time, but he didn’t want to. I was happy to walk off the pitch with him, there was no malice in it. There was no bad language in it. I just said to him, ‘Look, it’s offside’.”

He added: “He was alright wanting to speak to me before the game but when I wanted to speak to him at half-time he just showed me a yellow card.

“I might have said it was rubbish, or it wasn’t good enough, but there were no words for him to give me a yellow card.”

Bell was later criticised by former Premier League and FIFA referee Keith Hackett.

“James Bell talking about the fact he’s a Sheffield Wednesday fan, I don’t think that’s a clever idea,” he told Football Insider.

“Okay, you have to declare your allegiance to a club pre-season and that’s where you should leave it.

“The allegiance to the club should not be chatted about. The reality is we’re human and we all do things differently.”

Bell has refereed two previous Town matches, the 2-0 FA Cup replay defeat at Barrow in December 2021 and the 3-0 defeat at Northampton in April the same year.

Photo: NURPHOTO

Europablue added 09:58 - Apr 13 It depends on his character, but it might work in our favour if he overcompensates and gives us the rub of the green. Hopefully, we are good enough on Saturday not to rely on luck.
3

MaySixth added 09:58 - Apr 13 Wow.
2

BlueandTruesince82 added 09:59 - Apr 13 Can the club not lobby the EFL or FA for a change in situations like this?
10

Cloddyseedbed added 10:08 - Apr 13 That is a bad appointment for a match that carries so much significance. Surely the FA/EFL should reconsider.
11

ArnieM added 10:15 - Apr 13 So how can he possibly be allowed to ref out game ???
5

Gforce added 10:16 - Apr 13 This should not be happening, just imagine if he gives Charlton a dubious penalty, there will be uproar. Or on the flipside,doesn't give us a blatant penalty,either way serious questions will be asked.
2

OliveR16 added 10:19 - Apr 13 It's not fair on either team. He can't give a controversial decision against us without this coming up and if he overcompensates it's unfair on Charlton (and ironically Wednesday). A ridiculous situation.
4

Rozeeboy74 added 10:20 - Apr 13 He shouldn't be appointed. It was my understanding referees have to declare their support of any club so this sort of thing doesn't happen. This prevent an appoint to the supports team, or any game where the supported team is directly effected. I am not doubting his impartiality, but should something happen, decisions given or not, he will be under the spotlight.
2

BlueandTruesince82 added 10:21 - Apr 13 It's not fair on him either, it puts him in such an awkward position. Any mistakes will result in him getting crucified. Hope agent Bonne does us some favours this weekend
2

SamWhiteUK added 10:22 - Apr 13 Yeah, this has to be changed, and seeing as they have to declare an allegiance at the start of the year, should've never happened in the first place. Can it really be that difficult to organise?
2

Bazza8564 added 10:27 - Apr 13 Im with Blues and Trues, it's not fair to him either, not fair to any of the clubs involved, frankly he shouldn't really be in this division at the present time, it suits nobody to have thos hanging over the game
3

IpswichToon added 10:30 - Apr 13 In my opinion, articles like this actually turn this into a positive for us. Now that this info is publicly known, the ref is going to know he can't award any dubious decisions against us that would benefit Wednesday as it would be career suicide. This may end up being our silver bullet!
4

carlgibbs13 added 10:45 - Apr 13 Sounds a bit iffy on paper, but to be fair, I am sure he will be completely professional throughout the game. He knows his career could be affected by these games. Lets give him a chance at least, the game hasn't even started yet.
2

essexccc added 10:57 - Apr 13 Ridiculous! Just shouldn't happen. End of.
2

gosblue added 11:03 - Apr 13 As per Europablue it could work in our favour. He'll be under so much scrutiny. However, as I've said all season, if you're 4-0 up, one dodgy decision or defensive blunder or gust of wind doesn't change the outcome. So it's down to us, no excuses.We are good enough to win the league. COYB
3

TalkingBlues added 11:07 - Apr 13 Obviously he shouldn't be in charge of a game where he is potentially emotionally compromised and could carry a subconscious bias, but this is the EFL and they have proven numerous times to be nothing more than a poorly run comedy club, so he'll continue with this game, lets hope we don't give him the opportunity to screw us over.
1

Orraman added 11:08 - Apr 13 Surely, with 2 days to go before this game, it wouldn't be difficult to change this. It only requires a phone call to James Bell and another to one of his colleagues to swap games
2

BobbyBell added 11:08 - Apr 13 This again makes you question those people running things. This situation should have been avoided with some basic common sense. It's a no win situation for the ref and puts him under pressure. This takes me back to the 1975 FA Cup semi final replay with West Ham where a ref known to dislike Ipswich disallowed two perfectly good goals.
2

braveblue added 11:15 - Apr 13 Only football authorities would allow such an obvious car crash to happen.
2

RegencyBlue added 11:18 - Apr 13 This is not fair on the club or the referee himself frankly. Every decision he makes is going to be magnified out of all proportion. Common sense needs to prevail here!
3

ChrisFelix added 11:59 - Apr 13 After the farce of the fog at Oxford we cant afford any more C----ups
1

mrmorisato added 12:05 - Apr 13 For anyone truly unhappy with this appointment should contact the EFL supporters services department and make your voice heard, I was told that my message will get passed onto the relevant authorities. Here is the link: https://www.efl.com/-more/contacting-the-efl/ Their office is open 8am til 6pm Monday to Friday - so people get dialling! I also submitted a typed message through their contact link to ensure they can see what I said over the phone. I'm guesing that if they receive a lot of responses between now and the end of Friday the PGMOL will re-appoint a more suitable referee.

2

pafcprogs added 12:16 - Apr 13 Good news, they are bringing back Trevor Kettle for the game :)
0

LeeCarl84 added 14:12 - Apr 13 There is plenty of referees in this league so why not just switch for this game due to conflict of interest. Any wrong decision going to cause mayhem!
1

Michael101 added 16:26 - Apr 13 Yes Trevor kettle never let's a game boil over.
1

Blogs 295 bloggers

Ipswich Town Polls