Football referees who show the most cards

Cards markets turn on one name more than any other: the referee. Two referees can take charge of the same fixture and produce very different games, because one lets play run and the other stops it for every shirt pull. This page ranks every referee in the leagues we track by cards shown per game, with fouls alongside, over the last year. It updates itself as matches are played.

How to read it

Cards count yellows and reds for both teams. "Against the average" compares each referee with every match in the same table, so a strict league does not make every one of its referees look strict. Referees with fewer than five games are left out: a couple of wild derbies would otherwise put almost anyone at the top.

Where the numbers come from

Every card and foul here comes from the official match statistics of finished games, counted the same way for every league, so referees can be compared fairly across competitions. The table looks back a year, long enough to smooth out a few unusual games but short enough to reflect how a referee officiates now.

Why it matters for a cards pick

A referee who shows 30% more cards than average turns an even cards line into a likely over. Our model already reads the referee for every match, with derbies and the teams' own discipline: the "what moved the number" bars on a match page show how much the referee mattered for that game. Before you back a cards line, check who is in charge, then check whether the two teams foul a lot as well:

The same referee can behave differently in a title decider and in a mid-table game in March, so treat a high number as a reason to look closer rather than a pick on its own. You will find every market we call for a match on its match page, and today's football predictions start on the home page.