Sunderland v Leeds United referee confirmed - and there is history!

Stuart Attwell has been appointed as referee for Sunderland’s Premier League home game against Leeds United on Sunday afternoon.

The 44-year-old is one of the most experienced officials in the top flight of English football and also has experience of officiating fixtures in the Europa League and Conference League. Attwell progressed into international football as early as 2009 when he was named as main official for a friendly fixture between South Korea and Serbia that took place at Fulham’s Craven Cottage and was the man in the middle for Germany’s friendly win against Ghana earlier this year.

One interesting aspect of Attwell’s performances this season has been his eagerness to get his yellow card out after he racked up 25 bookings in just four Premier League fixtures. He also handed out two red cards during that time after dismissing Ipswich Town’s Abdul Fatawu for two bookable offences in a 1-0 defeat at Everton and Tottenham’s Rodrigo Bentancur for a violent conduct in his side’s recent 1-1 draw at Manchester United. Attwell also handed out three yellow cards in a Europa Conference League tie between Qarabag and Dynamo Kiev in August and that means he is averaging 5.6 bookings per game in all competitions this season.

Sunderland’s record with Attwell in the middle does not provide cause for optimism with the Black Cats winning just three of the 18 games he has officiated over the last 16 seasons. One of the games came in March this year when Habib Diarra got the only goal in a win against Leeds - although Attwell failed to award a penalty for a Luke O’Nien pull on Pascal Struijk in a decision identified as an error by the Premier League Key Match Incident panel. The Nuneaton-born official also oversaw a Championship fixture between the two sides as a Pascal Struijk brace gave the Whites a 2-1 home win against Sunderland in February 2025.

Attwell will be assisted by Constantine Hatzidakis and Nick Hopton and Andy Madley has been appointed as fourth official for the game. Craig Pawson will be on Video Assistant Referee (VAR) duties and he will be assisted by Mat Wilkes.

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