WORLD Cup final referee Howard Webb will take charge of Town’s game at Hull on Saturday.
And one of his assistants in the lunchtime showdown at the KC Stadium will be Sian Massey, who was the victim in the sexism row which cost Andy Gray his job at Sky Sports.
Former policeman Webb, 41, will head up the road from his Rotherham home for his 17th match of the season.
All the others have been Premier League, Champions League and World Cup (the Turkey versus Romania qualifier).
Awarded the MBE in 2011, father of three Webb made history the year before when he became the first person to referee the finals of the World Cup (Spain beat Holland 1-0 in Johannesburg) and Champions League (Inter Milan beat Bayern Munich 2-0 in Madrid) in the same year.
He has also refereed the finals of the FA and League Cup and took three games at this summer’s European Championship finals.
Webb began refereeing in the Northern Counties East League, whose member clubs include AFC Emley and Brighouse Town.
He became a Football League assistant referee in 1996 and referee in 2000, joining the Premier League list three years later and the FIFA ranks in 2005.
Widely respected, he won particular praise for his handling of Bolton midfielder Fabrice Muamba’s collapse due to a heart attack during the FA Cup quarter-final clash at Tottenham in March.
Webb’s last Championship match was the Wembley play-off final between West Ham and Blackpool in May and his last Town game the 2-1 League I defeat at Tranmere in February 2006.
Coventry-based schoolteacher Massey unwittingly hit the headlines in January 2011, when after her second Premier League game, as an assistant in Liverpool’s 3–0 win at Wolves, remarks made about her performance had a part in the row which led to Sky commentator Andy Gray being sacked and presenter Richard Keys resigning.
Northamptonshire’s Stuart Burt will be the other assistant referee at Hull and Staffordshire’s Steve Rushton the fourth official.
