Sikh referees Bhupinder, Sunny Gill to make English Football League history

LONDON: Two British Sikh brothers Bhupinder and Sunny Gill will make

English Football League

history this weekend when they become the first pair of British South Asians to officiate in the same match.

The UK-born brothers are sons of Jarnail Singh, the first turban-wearing Sikh English Football League referee, who moved to Britain from Mehna village in Moga in Punjab. Their mother, Baljit, is from Khanna in Ludhiana.

Britain’s highest-ranked, South Asian-origin assistant referee Bhupinder, 36, a PE teacher from Iver, will be assistant referee and his brother, Sunny, 37, the most senior British

South Asian

referee, who referees in the Vanarama National League, will be the fourth official, at the Bristol City vs Nottingham Forest Championship match at Aston Gate on Saturday. There will not be any spectators owing to Covid-19.

Sunny is an HMP Feltham prison officer from Winkfield.

“I do not think there are any other Sikh referees in English football right now,” Bhupinder said. “There are others from South Asian origin but definitely not Sikh. I want to represent the Sikh community and be a role model and encourage younger people from Sikh and any diverse background to get into refereeing. Everyone wants to be a professional footballer but is very difficult to make it at the highest level but now refereeing can be seen as a career and you can still be involved at the highest level. I get a buzz from knowing I am getting decisions correct and being part of the game. As a kid I dreamt of wanting to be on a football pitch in front of thousands of people and I am experiencing that.”

“The last time I went back to Punjab was 12 years ago,” Bhupinder added. He said he fondly remembered the football stadium in Mehna. “We went there aged 10 or 11 and again 13/14, and we used to play football there every day with the local kids. “

He started off as a referee aged 14, refereeing youth football matches on Sundays. Then he stopped after a year to play football for Indian Ghymkhana Club in Osterley, but then injured his back. “That made me want to stop playing as I didn’t want my back to get worse and that is when my dad said you might as well pick up the whistle again.” By then he was 24.

“We have 100 per cent inherited the talent from our dad. We had the experience of going to matches with him when we were younger and we would have debates about match and referee decisions, whereas normally people would be arguing about the football game,” he said.

Jarnail has retired as a referee and works as a community support officer at

Heathrow

and is a match observer.

“There are two South Asian heritage Sikh players in the Championship, so there is starting to be a slow influx of South Asians into football now, but we are waiting for that major breakthrough into Premier League. Still there are not enough role models at the higher level to encourage more South Asians to get into football, but it is getting there slowly. When my dad and his generation came to this country, parents would say sports isn’t a career so South Asians always strived to be doctors and lawyers,” Bhupinder said.

Shadow secretary of state for international development Preet Kaur Gill, Britain’s first Sikh female MP, said: “I think ahead of Baisakhi to see this game and to see two Sikhs refereeing will be absolutely something the Sikh community here in Britain can be really, really proud of and will really inspire others.”


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