Yet again another Punjabi has scripted history and made the entire community proud. This time it’s Sunny Singh Gill who has become the first British South Asian to referee a Premier League match by taking charge of Crystal Palace’s home game with Luton at Selhurst Park on Saturday.
Football writer Vai Bhardwaj said he was “extremely proud, as a fellow British Asian, to see Sunny Singh Gill become the first British South Asian to referee in the Premier League. A huge moment!”
Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) said, simply, “congratulations, Sunny!”
For the unversed, Sunny is the eldest son of league football’s first turbaned Sikh referee, the trailblazing Jarnail Singh, who refereed more than 150 English Football League (EFL) matches across the divisions between 2004 and 2010.
Gill’s brother, Bhupinder Singh Gill, became the first Sikh-Punjabi assistant referee to officiate in the Premier League when he ran the line in the match between Southampton and Nottingham Forest in January last year.
Sunny is the highest-ranked referee from a South Asian background in English football, and Bhupinder is the most senior assistant referee hailing from the community.
1 Comment
Pingback: Balle! Ed Sheeran Sings In Punjabi As He Performs With Diljit Dosanjh - Ghaint Punjab