Chris Kavanagh (born 4 September 1985) is an English professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

referee A referee is an official, in a variety of sports and competition, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection. The official tasked with this job may be known by a variety of other titl ...

. He officiates primarily in the

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

having been promoted to the Select Group of Referees in 2017.

Career

Kavanagh began his refereeing career at the age of 13. In 2012, he was promoted to officiate matches in the

National League The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team s ...

. He began refereeing in the

Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in the world. It was the top-level football league in Engla ...

in 2014. Kavanagh took charge of his first

match in April 2017. He was appointed to FIFA's international referees list in 2019.FIFA.com
/ref> He was the final appointed referee for the 2021 EFL Championship play-off Final between

Brentford F.C Brentford Football Club is a professional football club in Brentford, West London, England, which competes in the Premier League, the highest tier of English football, having gained promotion via the playoffs at the end of the 2020–21 Cham ...

and Swansea City AFC at

Wembley Stadium Wembley Stadium (branded as Wembley Stadium connected by EE for sponsorship reasons) is a football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the Wembley Stadium (1923), original Wembley Stadium, which was demolished from 200 ...

on 29 May 2021.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kavanhoe, Chris 1985 births English football referees English people of Irish descent Sportspeople from Ashton-under-Lyne Sportspeople from Manchester Living people Premier League referees