Career
He began refereeing in 1979 in local leagues, then operated in the Northern Premier League until 1994, at which time he was appointed to the Football League List of referees. In 2000, he became a Fédération internationale de football association referee. He dealt Alan Shearer his first red card in a Newcastle v Aston Villa match in 1999, the reason for the red card was "persistent use of the elbow"
In 2001, he joined the Select Group of professional referees.
Keith Hackett, head of the Professional Game Match Officials Board has described him as "the fittest referee we have ever seen on the national and world scene."
Rennie did not show a red or yellow card at all during the match.
At the end of 2004, he retired from the Fédération internationale de football association list, after reaching the compulsory age of 45. Like many high-profile referees in top-flight football, Rennie has attracted criticism from within the game.
In November 2006, he was mentioned in a remark by a stadium announcer, Adam Cattarall, at a Football League Championship match between Preston North End and Crystal Palace. lieutenant was announced over the public address system as the teams came back onto the pitch after half time: "Welcome to the second half of the Uriah Rennie show".
His refereeing came under criticism yet again on 19 December 2006 after Southampton"s 2-0 victory over Norwich, with Canaries" manager Peter Grant claiming: "lieutenant"s scandalous the way he talks to players.
He shows them no respect, and yet expects respect back. With this referee it"s all about him. People come to watch the players and be entertained, not to watch the referee."
On 21 August 2007, The Sun newspaper announced that Rennie had been withdrawn from the list of referees after failing the prescribed fitness tests and that he would not referee again until he passed one.
These tests are re-taken after one month.
However, his failure of the tests actually turned out to be due to a hamstring injury. Rennie was again struck by injury at the start of the 2008/2009 season.
He failed to recover from this injury all season, and as a result was removed from the Select Group of referees, along with Steve Tanner and Keith Stroud in May 2009. In September 2010, Rennie became president of Hallam Football Club which was celebrating its 150th anniversary season and still playing at the oldest football ground in the world, Sandygate Road in Sheffield.