Fans, pundits and managers spend hours arguing over contentious refereeing calls every weekend, but since 2022 the Premier League has had a dedicated body tasked with formally reviewing them: the Key Match Incident (KMI) Panel.
The panel convenes weekly to examine significant moments from matches, including goals, penalty awards, and red card incidents. It was set up by Premier League clubs specifically to remove performance analysis from the control of the refereeing body itself, giving an independent assessment of officiating standards.
Importantly, the panel does not simply judge decisions the way a supporter watching from the stands might. Instead, it applies the actual laws of the game alongside the specific standards the Premier League sets for how matches should be officiated. As a result, the number of officiating errors identified by the panel tends to be smaller than what fans might expect based on matchday debate and social media reaction.
The review process happens in two stages. First, the panel evaluates the call made by the on-field officiating team. It then separately assesses the response of the Video Assistant Referee. Because VAR intervention is only supposed to happen when there is a "clear and obvious" error, there are situations where the panel concludes the on-field decision was wrong, yet still rules that VAR was right not to step in.
This distinction can be confusing for outside observers. A useful way to think about it: if a referee awards a penalty that many disagree with, but observers can still understand the reasoning behind the call, that scenario would be classified as "incorrect on-field, but not to the VAR threshold." The panel also reviews instances of second yellow cards, whether missed entirely or shown incorrectly.
Findings from each week's meeting are published roughly ten days after the final fixture of that round, effectively a week after the panel's review concludes.
Beyond simply flagging mistakes, the panel's work feeds into other areas of the game. Each reviewed incident is assigned a difficulty rating, and these ratings are compiled into a merit table for Premier League match officials. This effectively functions as a referee performance ranking, which in turn determines bonus payments — officials who rank lower on the table receive only minimal extra compensation.
The panel's conclusions have also influenced broader rule discussions. One example cited is the loosening of the definition constituting a red card for hair-pulling offences introduced this season, a change informed by patterns identified through the panel's reviews.
Scotland's football authorities attempted something similar. The Scottish FA launched its own Key Match Incident Review Panel in September 2024, modelled closely on the Premier League's version. It consisted of five members: three drawn from the ranks of former coaches, ex-players or Scottish football media figures, plus one representative each from the Scottish FA and SPFL clubs.
However, that initiative did not survive long. At the start of the current season, the SFA discontinued its panel after clubs began withdrawing their representatives from the review process. Dundee United were the first to step away, doing so in February 2025 while raising doubts about the panel's "purpose, effectiveness and impact on Scottish football." The Tannadice club further argued that the panel's conclusions often clashed with feedback given separately by the Scottish FA, referencing monthly reviews conducted by the SFA's head of refereeing, Willie Collum, who reportedly disagreed with the panel's findings on multiple occasions. Other clubs are understood to have followed United's lead before the new season began, ultimately leading to the panel's collapse.
Based on reporting from BBC Sport.