After appointing Rebecca Welch as the Premier League’s first ever female referee and selecting Sam Allison as their first black official in 15 years, Premier League bosses have taken their diversity drive a step further, placing an unnamed squirrel in charge of this weekend’s tie between Manchester United and Liverpool.

The squirrel, found last week in Battersea Park, South London, will be the first non-human official to referee an English fixture since last weekend when Bobby Madley took charge of Blackburn’s home clash with Leeds.

However, some PGMOL insiders have claimed the appointment has very little to do with diversity and is merely an act of desperation. ‘Quite frankly, the PGMOL have looked at the situation and said to themselves “anything’s better than what we have right now” and with that, they’ve rolled the dice and hired a squirrel.’

The move has proved controversial with Premier League bosses – Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp suggested to reporters that PGMOL bosses had ‘gone nuts’, before adding, ‘how can a rodent referee a game, it’s an animal, it doesn’t possess a logical brain?’

However, the squirrel wouldn’t be the first referee to achieve success without one – the likes of Anthony Taylor, Mark Clattenburg, and Mike Dean have all carved out lengthy PL careers in spite of this.

Though, one thing that will reassure fans and managers alike is that the squirrel isn’t believed to be a white male with a questionable head of hair, a seeming prerequisite for bad decision making.