The family of iconic referee Uriah Rennie, who sadly passed away last year, have inherited an incredible seven-figure sum from the former Premier League official.
Rennie, who was the Premier League’s first black referee, passed away last June at the age of 65 after ‘battling a recent cancer diagnosis’, his family said at the time.
Rennie refereed over 300 top-flight matches between 1997 and 2008 and was once branded the ‘fittest’ official in world football. He was well known in South Yorkshire for his work with community sports groups and young people.
Hundreds of people gathered to pay their respects to Rennie at his funeral at Sheffield Cathedral last July.
Now, 10 months after his passing, documents have revealed the staggering £1.28 million he left to his partner, Jayne, and two children – automatically passed down as a result of him not having left a will.
Born in Jamaica, Rennie moved to Sheffield aged six and grew up in the Wybourn area of the city.
He began refereeing in local leagues in 1979 and was given his first Premier League appointment in 1997, overseeing a game between Derby County and Wimbledon.
He retired from football in 2008. Rennie was also a magistrate in Sheffield, a role he took up in 1996.
Rennie’s life was turned upside down in 2024 when he was diagnosed with a rare condition that left him paralysed from the waist down.
He was told by doctors that he had an inoperable neurological condition, and he revealed in April last year that he was learning to walk again after spending several months in hospital.
‘I spent a month laid on my back and another four months sitting in bed,’ he told BBC News.
‘They kept me in hospital until February, they found a nodule pushing on my spine and it was a rare neurological condition so it’s not something they can operate on.’
‘I have had to learn to move all over again, I’m retraining my legs. I can move my feet and I can stand with a frame attached to my wheelchair but I need to work on my glutes.’
Last May hundreds of people celebrated his inauguration as the new chancellor of Sheffield Hallam University. He died from cancer before he could fully begin the role.
Sheffield Hallam Vice-Chancellor Professor Liz Mossop said he had meant a huge amount to many different people.
‘His upbringing, his tenacity and his resilience to achieve the amazing things he achieved were reflected in his career, but he also brought those skills and values to Sheffield,’ Mossop said.
‘He supported so many different organisations and individuals across the city and in the region.
‘He was always somebody who helped people, no matter who they were or where they came from. He just got out there and did the right thing for them.’
