The currently appointed referee for Coventry City's League One game against Sheffield United on Sunday is Kevin Friend from Leicester.
The Leicester City supporter started refereeing at the age of 14 and worked his way through the Leicestershire Senior League and Midland Football Alliance before being promoted to the National List of Referees, and later to the Select Group of Referees ahead of the 2009–10 season. His First Premier League was in September 2009 when he was in charge of Wolves 2-1 win over Fulham.
He has refereed the 2009 FA Vase Final, the 2012 Community Shield and the 2013 Capital One Cup Final. This week, he has been dropped back to Football League matches following criticism.
Mr Friend, who has spoken at a Coventry City Diamond Club lunch, was last in charge of a City match in March 2009 when City lost 2-1 at Preston in a game where three players were cautioned. Other games, he has been in charge of are the FA Cup win at Torquay in January 2009, the 1-0 win at Sheffield Wednesday in November 2008 and the 0-0 pre-season draw against Norwich City in July 2004.
This season, according to Soccerbase, he had had six matches and shown 15 yellow cards but no reds.
His Assistants are: Scott Ledger and John Flynn. Fourth Official is Oliver Langford, a former Midland Combination referee, who has taken charge of a number of Coventry Sphinx matches in his time.