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.

Photo: Matchday Images

Bluemike31 added 10:43 - Aug 13 Everything that's bad about the Premier league
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Radlett_blue added 10:51 - Aug 13 What could possibly go wrong?
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Tractorboy58 added 10:59 - Aug 13 I really really dislike Keith Stroud
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runningout added 11:00 - Aug 13 Yuk!
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algarvefan added 11:11 - Aug 13 Where is the positivity guys? It matters not who the officials are, we are back in the Premier League and ever since this fixture was announced I have fancied us for this, I'm going for a 2-1 Town win and then a great season. In KM we trust. Sorry gotta go nursey has my medication!!!!
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chepstowblue added 11:13 - Aug 13 The line up was always going to be horrific. These are some of the most nonsensical morons currently officiating in the game. The name of Keith Stroud is right up there with the Eddie Ilderton's of this world. The Premier league is a circus, and a circus always requires clowns. But it won't be funny !
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muhrensleftfoot added 11:23 - Aug 13 At least we have VAR now, so we know that every decision will be the correct decision. Oh......
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Gforce added 11:58 - Aug 13 Where are the signings ??? Only 18 days of the window remaining!! A minimum of 4 real quality signings required to have any chance of staying up,preferably a cb,cm,cf & lw.
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ChrisFelix added 12:32 - Aug 13 with VAR we would have won the cup in 1975. More recently both Norwich goals at PR would have been disallowed & we would have won the Championship
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RIPbobby added 13:13 - Aug 13 I wonder what a certain Mr Clive Thomas would make of var.
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BlueArrow added 13:16 - Aug 13 Clive Thomas once seen NEVER forgotten
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MickMillsTash added 13:17 - Aug 13 With VAR we would have got to the MILK CUP final in 84/85 definitely over the line at Churchman's end in the first game Use VAR to stop diving and cheating and then deal with mm offside decisions. Hopefully that smug tw@t 'he was touched in the area so he has a right to go down' Lineker will know the rules this season.
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Bluespeed225 added 13:22 - Aug 13 Last game here in 2020. He’ll see some differences!
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johnwarksshorts added 14:24 - Aug 13 I hate var.
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blues1 added 14:33 - Aug 13 GForce. 2 things. 1. This story isnt about signings. 2. If you think you could do better getting players in, maybe you should offer your services to Ashton. I'm sure he'd welcome your expertise.
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Gforce added 16:25 - Aug 13 Blues1......It could just be that I'm not particularly interested in who is controlling var.My only concern is our club bringing in the right players to help us achieve our goal of staying up and keeping Premier League status,for which we've waited a quarter of a lifetime to achieve.
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Bert added 20:32 - Aug 13 ……….. sometimes in life it pays to keep things simple. VAR may statistically be right but being right is not always the best course of action in sport. VAR is just another example of dehumanising the joy of the moment.
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rkl added 23:19 - Aug 13 My memory of Keith Stroud is awarding us a, some would say dubious penalty against Birmingham in 2015 when Maitland Niles was fouled and Brett Pitman stepped up and with a cheeky smile towards their goalkeeper, calmly slotted the ball home
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