Early career (2004–2021)
Brooks played football up until the age of 14, and has said that he "wasn't the most talented footballer", but loved football and so decided to take up refereeing. He began refereeing in the local leagues in Leicestershire in 2004 at the age of 14. [3] He began refereeing adult football at the age of 16. [4] He also worked at an insurance brokers before becoming a professional referee. [4]
Brooks began officiating as an assistant referee at Premier League level at the age of 21. [5] In 2011, he was promoted to the national list of assistant referees, and in 2012 he was promoted to the Select Group of assistant referees. [6] He was promoted to the FIFA list of international assistant referees in 2015. [7]
Brooks was an assistant referee at the 2014 Football League Championship play-off final and the 2015 FA Community Shield. He was also an assistant referee to Mark Clattenburg at the 2016 FA Cup final. [6]
Brooks began refereeing in the Conference League at the start of the 2014–2015 season, before moving up to Football League in the 2016–2017 season. [3] [8] He was promoted to Select Group 2 at the start of the 2018–2019 season. [9] He refereed the 2018 FA Vase final between Stockton Town and Thatcham Town. [10]
Premier League and FIFA list (2021–present)
2022–23: Premier League breakthrough
Brooks refereed his first Premier League game of the 2022–23 season on 13 August 2022 between Wolverhampton Wanderers and Fulham at the Molineux stadium. [18] [19]
Brooks was promoted to the FIFA list of international referees at the start of 2023. [20]
On 11 February 2023, Brooks, as the video assistant referee, wrongly ruled out a goal by Brighton & Hove Albion's Pervis Estupiñán against Crystal Palace. A technician tasked with drawing the lines failed to draw the line to the deepest Crystal Palace defender and mistakenly identified James Tomkins as the Crystal Palace player closest to his own goal when it was actually his team-mate Marc Guéhi. [21] [22] After the image was presented to Brooks, he misjudged the situation and unintentionally ruled out Brighton & Hove's goal. An emergency meeting was convened by PGMOL head Howard Webb after the incident. Following the meeting, Brooks was subsequently dropped for his next two matches. [23]
After almost a two month gap, Brooks returned to refereeing on 5 March 2023, [13] where he refereed Nottingham Forest's 2–2 draw with Everton at the City Ground. He was criticised by Nottingham Forest manager Steve Cooper and Everton manager Sean Dyche for his performance in the match. Cooper said that there would be a lot of talk about the performance of Brooks, and said that he had "too much impact" on the game. Cooper claimed that there was a foul on Morgan Gibbs-White in the build up to Abdoulaye Doucouré's goal, whilst Dyche said that he was "amazed" that Everton did not get a penalty after Séamus Coleman went down after a challenge from Jack Colback. [24] Cooper subsequently called for a review into Brooks' display and Nottingham Forest made a formal complaint about the standard of referees. [25] Despite this, Brooks went on to referee Bournemouth vs Liverpool at the Vitality stadium, [26] and later refereed Manchester United vs Brentford at Old Trafford on 5 April 2023. [27]
Brooks was the fourth official for Liverpool's 4–3 victory over Tottenham Hotspur at Anfield on 30 April 2023, in which a winner for Liverpool was scored in the 94th minute. [28] Liverpool manager Jürgen Klopp celebrated the stoppage time winner by running up to Brooks and celebrating in front of him, which Klopp later described as being "not cool" and admitted was his fault. [29] [30] [31] Referee Paul Tierney deemed his conduct worthy of a red card, but Brooks convinced Tierney to instead issue him with a yellow card. [29] [32] Klopp later submitted a letter to the FA, in which he apologised to both Tierney and Brooks, and stated that he was sorry for his "immediate reaction" when he ran towards Brooks. [33]
Brooks refereed 5 matches during the final month of the season in May 2023. He refereed Manchester City's 3–0 win over West Ham at the Etihad on 3 May and Bournemouth's 1–3 defeat to Chelsea at the Vitality stadium on 6 May, before refereeing Manchester United vs Wolverhampton Wanderers at Old Trafford on 13 May and then Liverpool vs Aston Villa at Anfield on 20 May. His last game came on the final day of the season between Brentford and Premier League champions Manchester City at the Gtech Community stadium on 28 May 2023. [34] He refereed a total of 19 Premier League games during the season. [13]
2023–24: Rise and international career
Brooks was the fourth official for the 2023 FA Community Shield between Arsenal and Manchester City on 6 August 2023. [35] His first refereed Premier League game of the season came on 12 August 2023 between Sheffield United and Crystal Palace at Bramall Lane. [36] He refereed his first UEFA Europa League match between Sheriff Tiraspol and Servette on 26 October 2023. [37]
Brooks refereed Newcastle vs Liverpool at St James' Park on 27 August 2023. [38] In the match, he showed a straight red card to Liverpool captain Virgil Van Dijk for a DOGSO on Newcastle forward Alexander Isak. [39] [40] Van Dijk argued with Brooks over the decision to send him off while the incident was being reviewed by the VAR, and said "absolute fucking joke" during the incident. [41] Van Dijk later denied calling Brooks that, and said he was "adamant" that he was instead referring to the decision by Brooks and subsequent VAR decision to send him off. [42] After looking at the match report by Brooks, [43] the FA subsequently charged Van Dijk for acting in an improper manner towards a match official after his sending off, and also for using abusive and or insulting words. [44] [45] After the match, Newcastle manager Eddie Howe said that Brooks was "wrong" to not issue a second yellow card to Liverpool defender Trent Alexander-Arnold for a foul on Newcastle forward Anthony Gordon. [46]
Brooks was the VAR for Chelsea's 4–1 win over Tottenham at Tottenham Hotspur stadium on 6 November 2023. [47] During the match, Brooks made 9 VAR decisions, and in the match there were 5 goals ruled out and 2 red cards issued. During the first half, Brooks checked for a red card against Tottenham defender Cristian Romero at 22 mins but no card was issued. [48] [49] At 24 mins, he disallowed an equalised for Chelsea forward Raheem Sterling for handball and at 28 mins he disallowed a goal from Moisés Caicedo for offside. [48] At 31 mins, he recommended referee Michael Oliver to review Romero for serious foul play for a foul by Romero on Enzo Fernández, for which Oliver issued a penalty and a red card against Romero. [50] [51] Brooks was praised for his performance as the VAR by former referees Dermot Gallagher and Mark Clattenburg. [52] [53] PGMOL chief Howard Webb also said that the VAR officials for the match and the officials on the field did really well, and described the review for the Romero sending off and subsequent penalty as an "excellent process" and a "good intervention". [54] [55]
On 26 November 2023, Brooks was the referee for Manchester United's 3–0 win over Everton at Goodison Park, [56] in which Alejandro Garnacho scored the opening goal; which was a bicycle kick which later won the Puskás award. [57] During the second half after the first goal had been scored, Brooks initially booked Anthony Martial for a dive, but VAR Chris Kavanagh advised Brooks to watch Ashley Young's challenge on the pitchside monitor and after doing that, Brooks awarded a penalty to Manchester United which Marcus Rashford scored to make it 2–0. Everton manager Sean Dyche described the "screen thing" as a "farce", and said that VAR seems to be "mayhem all the time". Thousands of Everton fans also took part in anti-Premier League protests in the match by holding up cards with the Premier League logo with the word "corrupt" underneath it, and Brooks was booed by the Everton fans for decisions he made during the match. [58]
Brooks refereed Portugal's 9–0 win over Luxemburg on 11 September 2023. [59] He later refereed France 's 14–0 victory over Gibraltar at the Allianz Riviera on 18 November 2023, which was the largest win in the history of the European Championship qualifiers. [60] During the match, Brooks issued a red card to Gibraltar defender Ethan Santos after a VAR review, and also awarded a penalty to France after a VAR review for handball, which Kylian Mbappé converted. [61] [62] He refereed the UEFA Youth League final between Olympiacos and Milan at Colovray Stadium, Nyon in Switzerland on 22 April 2024. [63] Brooks refereed two FA cup games during the season, firstly during the third round on 7 January 2024 between Arsenal and Liverpool at the Emirates stadium. [64] He also refereed the quarter-final between Manchester United and Liverpool at Old Trafford on 17 March 2024, during which he issued a second yellow card to Manchester United player Amad Diallo for excessive celebration after he scored a 121st minute winner in extra time to make the score 4–3. [65] He also refereed a Carabao cup second leg semi-final between Chelsea and Middlesbrough at Stamford Bridge on 23 January 2024. [66]
Brooks refereed a total of 22 Premier games during the season, [13] with his last refereed Premier League match coming on the final day of the season on 19 May 2024, between Manchester City and West Ham at the Etihad stadium, [67] which Manchester City won 3–1 to become Premier League champions. [68] Brooks was reported as being statistically the best Premier League referee during the season, [69] [70] [71] as well as the second best VAR. [70]
Brooks refereed the 2024 EFL Championship play-off final between Southampton and Leeds at Wembley on 26 May 2024, [72] which was attended by 85,862 people; making it the highest attended EFL Championship play-off final in over a decade. [73]
Brooks was promoted to the UEFA first category of referees at the start of the 2024–2025 season; he replaced Craig Pawson, and joined Chris Kavanagh to be the only English officials on the UEFA second tier referees list for the season. [69] He was appointed to referee the 2024 FA Community Shield, but sustained a minor injury the week before the final was due to be played, and he was replaced by Jarred Gillett. [74] He refereed his first Premier League match of the season between Tottenham and Brentford at the Tottenham Hotspur stadium on 21 September 2024. [75] Brooks was defended by Brentford manager Thomas Frank when Frank was asked about the handball by Tottenham goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario that Brooks had missed during the game; Frank stated that it was a "mistake" but said that the incident "did not define the game", and also added that "Brooks overall had a very good game" and said that "the way he handled soft fouls both ways was really good". [76]
Brooks refereed his second Premier League match of the season on 20 October 2024, which was a big six clash between Liverpool and Chelsea at Anfield. [13] During the first half, Brooks awarded a penalty to Liverpool for a foul by Levi Colwill on Curtis Jones, which Mohamed Salah then scored. Brooks awarded a second penalty to Liverpool for Robert Sánchez's challenge on Jones, but changed his decision after being recommended to review at the pitchside monitor by VAR Michael Oliver. [77] After the match, Liverpool manager Arne Slot accused Brooks of wanting to show that he was not able to give the decisions he had to make whilst referring to the Anfield atmosphere. [78] [79] Conversely, Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca said the referee was there to "make decisions", and claimed that sometimes they were made "because of the noise", but also stated that "overall they did ok". [80]
Brooks has also refereed multiple other big six clashes during the season, including Manchester City's 4–0 defeat to Tottenham at the Etihad stadium on 23 November 2024, and a carabao cup quarter-final which Manchester United lost 4–3 to Tottenham at the Tottenham Hotspur stadium on 19 December 2024. [13] Internationally, in the UEFA Europa League, Brooks refereed Ajax's 4–0 win over Besiktas at the Johan Cruyff Arena on 26 September 2024, [81] and Malmö FF's 2–2 draw with Galatasaray at the Eleda stadion on 12 December 2024. [82] He also refereed the group stage UEFA Nations league match between Malta and Moldova on 13 October 2024. [83]
Brooks refereed Ipswich Town's 2–0 win over Chelsea at Portman Road on 30 December 2024. [84] In the 10th minute of the match, he awarded a penalty to Ipswich for a foul by Filip Jörgensen on Liam Delap. [85] Numerous Chelsea players then surrounded Brooks due to the on-field decision, including Levi Colwill and Enzo Fernández, who were both then booked for dissent. [86] Chelsea were later charged by the FA for "surrounding a match official", and for failing to "ensure their players did not behave in a way which was improper". [87]
