Referee who sent off Leeds United’s opposition boss back in 2019 to officiate Bournemouth clash

Tony Harrington will be referee for Leeds United’s game on Saturday. The Whites take on Bournemouth and will be looking to build on their impressive win away at Liverpool last time out.

Jesse Marsch’s side had the North East-born man officiating for them earlier this season against Southampton away and this weekend will be his 15th time refereeing a Whites clash. Prior to this campaign, he spent the past decade as the man in the middle for Football League games.

Harrington has taken charge of five Premier League games so far this term and has handed out 19 yellow cards. He has also done four Championship matches, giving out 15 yellows in those.

Rewind back to the 2018/19 season and he was refereeing Leeds’ fixture in the second tier against Bolton Wanderers at Elland Road on Saturday 23rd February. The hosts ended up winning 2-1 courtesy of goals from Patrick Bamford and winger Ezgjan Alioski in what was a big three points in their promotion push that year under Marcelo Bielsa.

There was a kerfuffle in the technical area between the Whites’ coaching staff and Bolton’s backroom team which resulted in Harrington sending off the then Trotters boss Phil Parkinson. The now Wrexham manager was aggrieved by this decision and said after the match, as per BBC Sport:

“Every member of both benches was over separating it, and the referee came over and sent me off. I’m going to ask in a minute why wasn’t their manager sent off as he was outside the technical area doing the same, so were all their staff.

“One of their players poured a bottle of water over Joe Williams’ head, that’s what started it, he didn’t even get booked for it. Out of 20 staff in the middle of a melee the referee chose to send me off and left all their staff in place.”

Harrington will be assisted byEddie Smart and Richard West this weekend, with Michael Salisbury as the fourth official and Simon Hooper and Wade Smith on VAR.