Dr Tom Webb is an expert in the global management, leadership, operational environment and working practices of sport officials. Dr Webb has published extensively on the subject of sport officials, including three books and over 50 peer reviewed journal articles, book chapters and reports. Tom leads the Referee and Sports Official Research Network, based in the Centre for Resilient Business and Society (CRBS). 

Since 2016, Tom has been involved in projects that have been successfully awarded over £1.7m of funding for research, impact and consultancy as PI or Co-I from a range of sources, including the UEFA Research Fund, European Commission, Quebec Ministry of Education, Canadian Institute of Health Research, The Football Association, Sport Northern Ireland, Sport Ireland, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and the Sport Dispute Resolution Centre of Canada. Tom’s research has been disseminated at a variety of international and national conferences and has published widely in high-impact peer-reviewed journals including European Sport Management Quarterly, Sport Management Review, Journal of Sport Management, Psychology of Sport and Exercise, Journal of Applied Sport Psychology and the European Journal of Sport Science.

Tom's research includes an edited book published in August 2024 entitled Managing and Developing Sports Officials: Officiating Excellence, a book published in 2020 entitled Referees, Match Officials and Abuse: Research and Implications for Policy and a book on the subject of elite referees in football entitled, Elite Soccer Referees: Officiating in the Premier League, La Liga and Serie A (published in 2017). Tom has worked with a significant number of high-profile sporting organisations from around the world on projects related to officials such as UEFA, The Premier League, English FA, Dutch FA (KNVB), French FA (FFF), Italian Football Federation (FIGC), the Royal Spanish Football Federation, Rugby Football Union (RFU), Welsh Rugby Union (WRU), European Handball, Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) and World Netball.

In addition to his research, Tom contributes extensively across national and international media platforms including ESPN, BBC TV, BBC 5 Live, SkySports, TalkSport, ITV, the Times, the Telegraph and the Guardian, amongst other outlets.

Tom's research interests concern the role of match officials in sport. Specifically, Tom founded the Referee and Sports Official Research Network and has been awarded grants and funding from agencies such as UEFA, the Premier League, World Netball and the European Commission.

Alongside football in both the UK and around the world, the focus of Tom's research has considered other sports such as netball, rugby union, rugby league and cricket, all of which have generated very strong national media coverage on topics such as the erosion of values in sport. Tom's research has also resulted in changes to policy, with some of the research conducted on cricket utilised to assist in changing the laws of the game across the world.

Tom's recent research has focused on violence, aggression and abuse towards sports officials, the mental health and well-being of sports officials from a global perspective and the careers, recruitment and retention of sports officials. Tom is involved in a number of internationally funded research projects in these areas.

Information about Tom's current project, REFS: Inspiring the next generation of sport officials in Europe, can be found here.