Anthony Taylor retires after World Cup, says one-sided criticism from ex-officials creates 'culture of fear'

Anthony Taylor, the 47-year-old referee who took charge of the World Cup last-16 match between Spain and Portugal in Dallas five weeks ago, has retired and said that criticism from former match officials contributes to a "culture of fear, disrespect, shame," he told BBC Sport on 13 August 2026.

Taylor announced his retirement last month after a 20-year career that included 668 matches in the English professional game, every major domestic cup final and 163 international fixtures; he described his career as "an immense privilege, but the pressure is intense and the scrutiny is constant." Having refereed three matches at his second World Cup, Taylor said he chose to finish after the tournament because "I wanted to decide when I finished on my own terms," and "I don't think you can say there's any better place to finish than at the World Cup."

Explaining why he stepped away, Taylor said pressure and scrutiny were factors, but framed the decision as the result of his "body and my mind coming to its natural course in that current role - and it's ready to go on a new journey." He told BBC Sport that referees face widespread sources of doubt: "Fear of making mistakes, external opinion, spectators, managers, parents, media, colleagues. All these things feed into creating self-doubt, lacking confidence, and then things can spiral out of control and you lose the ability to actually have any confidence in what you're doing on the field."

Taylor also highlighted the personal cost of top-level officiating and the impact on family life, noting that relatives had stopped attending his matches because of abuse and recalling past incidents of targeting; "Undoubtedly one of the things that you are considering are the serious sacrifices that both your family and your friends have made over the years for you to do what you do," he said, adding that "Family life takes a back seat… so, for sure, that was a big part of why I decided to step back."

On public scrutiny and media analysis, Taylor described the coverage as "off the scale" and singled out former officials working in the media for contributing to an unbalanced debate: "When we're dealing with supposedly objective analysis of matches, whether that be an expert ex-player in a studio or an ex-referee, that should be balanced and fair. If it's all one-sided criticism, that creates a culture of fear, disrespect, shame."

Taylor said he did not intend to join punditry to criticise colleagues and prefers mentoring: "I would never feel like I would be wanting to be in a place where I want to criticise somebody, because I'd like to think I've got a very good understanding of why somebody's made a decision that they've made." He outlined plans to pass on his experience in a new role in Turkey, where he has been appointed director of elite refereeing for the country's football federation and "will take up that role in the wake of a major refereeing scandal in the country, with a five-year investigation finding 371 of 571 match officials had betting accounts."

Describing his brief time at the World Cup, Taylor said officiating in the Dallas heat had been "brutal" and discussed the limits of VAR: "Anything to do with VAR is good when we're talking about increasing the overall accuracy of decision-making," he said, adding that VAR should focus on "the big clear errors, and it's not there for microscopic, long-detail checks." On the frequency and duration of reviews he commented: "I think most people agree that does happen on occasions, so it's very sensible for us to say that and acknowledge that sometimes things are taking too long, and we're being too microscopic."

Taylor's immediate next step is to begin his role in Turkey, where he said the central aim will be "helping the officials - particularly the younger officials in the group - develop, build that resilience, build a better skillset to cope with those demanding matches, and really to drive improvement of standards in that respect and that's the central aim of my role there."