Chelsea to approach PGMOL over referee’s bizarre interruption of team huddle | Football News
3 min readUpdated: Mar 15, 2026 02:18 PM IST Chelsea’s team huddles around the ball just seconds before kickoff was already an unusual sight in the Premier League since Liam Rosenior took over as head coach. On Saturday, it became an even more bizarre sight when standing right in the middle of the huddle was referee Paul Tierney. While that made for a rather comic sight, Rosenior himself wasn’t too impressed and said after the match, which Chelsea lost to Newcastle United 1-0 at home, that he will take the matter up with the Professional Game Match Official Limited (PGMOL). Before the Premier League match against Newcastle at Stamford Bridge, referee Tierney took hold of the ball next to the center circle – only to soon find himself surrounded by the Chelsea team. Starman Cole Palmer was even seen placing his arms around the shoulders of Tierney, who looked slightly bemused as a team talk took place with him in the middle of it. Chelsea’s pregame team huddle today had a special guest—the referee. 😂 …


