Career
He first began refereeing in 1977 and progressed via the Hertfordshire County League, the Isthmian League and the Panel League Competitions.
He was appointed as a Football League assistant referee in 1986 and promoted to referee in 1990. At this point he was aged only thirty and the youngest member on the List. The majority of his appointments over the next three seasons were in the lower divisions.
In 1993 he lost his place; under previous circumstances that would have been the end of his Football League career. Until 1993, demoted referees were not given another chance to get back onto the List. A change of policy, however, allowed him to revert to assistant status while refereeing in the Football Conference. In 1995 he successfully regained his refereeing place. This feat has since been matched by Brian Coddington, Fred Graham, Gary Lewis, Gary Sutton, Darren Drysdale and Steve Bratt.
Taylor had far greater success in his second spell on the List. Indeed he gained further promotion to the FA Premier League for the season 2000-01. However, following low markings and a number of controversies he was demoted to the Football League after just one season where he continued to be one of its leading officials.
Taylor refereed the Hertfordshire Senior County Cup Final, the FA Sunday Cup Final and several international matches at both Youth and semi-professional level. He also officiated in the Football League Play-Offs on six occasions including the League Two Final at the Millennium Stadium, Cardiff, in 2006.
Other notable appointments included refereeing Cheltenham Town’s first game in the Football League and Southampton's last match at The Dell versus Arsenal.
His overseas appointments included the 2000-01 UEFA Champions League third qualifying round fixture between Dynamo Kiev and Red Star Belgrade. Taylor refereed his first senior FIFA International between Nigeria and Venezuela in August 2003. In 2004 he was fourth official at the FA Trophy Final. In the same year, he retired from international refereeing due to age restrictions. In 2005 he became a County Accredited Referees Instructor and in 2006 qualified as a National Licensed Instructor.
The 2007-08 season was due to be his final one as a League referee before retirement, however after appealing the decision to remove him from the National List of referees because of age, he was included for the 2008-2009 and 2009-2010 seasons. He refereed the Ipswich v Preston match on the opening day of the 2008-2009 Championship season.
His final fixture was the League One match between Wycombe Wanderers and Gillingham on 8 May 2010. He now works as a Referee Coach for the Professional Game Match Officials Ltd.
Read more about this topic: Paul Taylor (referee)
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