{"id":50860,"date":"2026-04-29T19:41:35","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T14:11:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/?p=50860"},"modified":"2026-04-29T19:41:35","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T14:11:35","slug":"darren-england-to-referee-fa-cup-2026-final-as-chelsea-face-manchester-city-at-wembley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/football\/darren-england-to-referee-fa-cup-2026-final-as-chelsea-face-manchester-city-at-wembley\/","title":{"rendered":"Darren England to referee FA Cup 2026 final as Chelsea face Manchester City at Wembley"},"content":{"rendered":"<p dir=\"auto\">The Football Association has officially confirmed that <strong>Darren England<\/strong> will referee the <strong>Emirates FA Cup Final 2026<\/strong>. The showpiece match is set for <strong>Saturday, 16 May 2026<\/strong>, with kick-off at <strong>3:00 PM BST<\/strong> at <strong>Wembley Stadium<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"auto\">This represents a major career milestone for the 40-year-old Premier League referee, who was born on 23 December 1985 and has risen steadily through the ranks.<\/p>\n<h3 dir=\"auto\">Who is Darren England?<\/h3>\n<p dir=\"auto\">Darren England has been a <strong>Premier League referee<\/strong> since his promotion in August 2020. He became a <strong>FIFA-listed international referee<\/strong> in 2022 and is widely regarded as one of England\u2019s most reliable and consistent officials.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"auto\">He regularly features in high-profile Premier League fixtures, Carabao Cup matches, and FA Cup ties. England is known for his calm decision-making, fitness, and effective use of VAR \u2014 qualities that will be tested in football\u2019s oldest domestic cup final.<\/p>\n<h3 dir=\"auto\">FA Cup Final 2026: Chelsea vs Manchester City<\/h3>\n<p dir=\"auto\">The final pits <strong>Chelsea<\/strong> against <strong>Manchester City<\/strong> in what promises to be an exciting clash between two of English football\u2019s biggest clubs. Both teams have shown strong form throughout the 2025\/26 season, making this a mouth-watering encounter for fans.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"auto\">Darren England will be supported by a full team of officials, including assistant referees and VAR, though the complete crew details are expected to follow soon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Football Association has officially confirmed that Darren England will referee the Emirates FA Cup Final 2026. The showpiece match\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":217,"featured_media":50861,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[5352],"class_list":["post-50860","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-football","tag-fa-cup-2026"],"reading_time":"2 min read","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50860","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/217"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50860"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50860\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50862,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50860\/revisions\/50862"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50861"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}