Meet the Referee – John Busby

Each week we take a close look at the referee assigned to the Swans game and look at their previous record when officiating our beloved Swansea City.

This week’s referee spotlight focuses on John Busby, who was appointed the referee for the Bristol City v Swansea City EFL Championship game on Sunday, 9 February 2025.

Referee John Busby

Referee Busby was assisted by Darren Williams and Greg Read with James Linington the 4th Official for the game.

Name: John Busby
Birthplace: Oxfordshire

Background:
John Busby was one of only two new referees on the Select Group 2 refereeing list for the 2021/22 season.

Busby spent 8 seasons as an assistant referee in the EFL before joining the National Group List of Referees in 2016, when he began refereeing EFL matches during the 2016/17 season. His first game was the League One clash between Shrewsbury Town and Scunthorpe United, during which he handed out six yellow cards!

During the 2020-2021 season, Busby awarded 90 yellow cards and 6 red cards in the 34 games he officiated across the FA Cup, Sky Bet Championship, Sky Bet League One, Sky Bet League Two, EFL Cup and EFL Trophy.

Swans related Fact(s):
This was the fifth time that John Busby has officiated a Swansea City away game, having officiated seven Swans home games to date.

Here are the all important facts and figures for each game that he has been a referee for a Swansea City game:

Date
Competition
Home Team
Score
Away Team
9 February 2025ChampionshipBristol City0:1Swansea City
26 October 2024ChampionshipSwansea City0:1Millwall
14 September 2024ChampionshipSwansea City1:0Norwich City
20 April 2024ChampionshipHuddersfield Town0:4Swansea City
17 February 2024ChampionshipSwansea City1:2Ipswich Town
30 September 2023ChampionshipMillwall0:3Swansea City
7 April 2023Championship Swansea City0:0Coventry City
21 January 2023ChampionshipQPR1:1Swansea City
30 December 2022ChampionshipSwansea City4:0Watford
1 November 2022ChampionshipPreston North End1:0Swansea City
20 August 2022ChampionshipSwansea City0:2Luton Town
15 September 2021 Championship Swansea City 0:0 Millwall

In summary, John Busby’s record for Swansea City games is as follows:

Home Games
P7 W2 D2 L3

Away Games
P5 W3 D1 L1

Overall Record
P12 W5 D3 L4

This referee has a Swans Love Factor of 67%

You can also browse more information and stats about other referees who have officiated Swansea City games.