Howard Webb, the chief refereeing officer for the Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL), invited two pilots to speak to his team of Premier League referees in October as part of a larger push to improve communications between the referee on the pitch and the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) hub.
Two pilots for British Airways, Chris Heaven and Pete Nataraj, were chosen to give a presentation to the 20 referees and 30 assistant referees in Select Group 1. The group is responsible for officiating Premier League matches in the UK and includes some of the most senior referees in the sport. According to The Times, the presentation lasted 45 minutes and discussed communication while also providing advice on remaining calm in challenging situations. Guidance included emphasizing the need for clarity and accuracy, minimal syllables, and a focus on ensuring that dialogue is brief and direct. The focus on communication comes after a chaotic miscommunication between the VAR and on-field referee. The incident saw Liverpool's Luis Diaz wrongly disallowed a goal in September sparking outrage. An audio recording released after the event depicted a lack of clarity in communication and led to a review of the VAR process.
The decision to have the pilots speak is largely due to their work in a high-pressure environment where communication (or lack of it) can be a matter of life and death. Pilots must communicate with many different groups over the course of a shift, providing relevant but different information, to make vital and often split-second decisions. During the talk, the pilots discussed the similarities between the role of the pilot and the referee. Much like a football referee, pilots have to be able to listen to communications from ground staff, air traffic control, cabin crew, and those in the cockpit with them and filter out the 'white noise' to deal with what really matters at the moment. Clarity in communication is also a crucial factor in both roles. Pilots are frequently required to land abroad, where a simple, standardized vocabulary is vital to overcoming any language barriers. On the field, the referee also receives input from assistants, the VAR, players, and managers simultaneously, with little time for explanations. In the September incident, for instance, an assistant said, "Give it," but it was unclear whether he was referring to the goal or the offside, resulting in the referee making the wrong call. This is not the first time aviation professionals have spoken to the group. In December 2022, PGMOL brought in air traffic control staff to discuss similar themes of communication in high-pressure environments.
