True, but it does feel like a lot of these current Premier League refs have hung around for a while. Maybe it won't be long before we see newer, younger and fitter refs at the top levels soon in the UK.
I do know what you mean exactly, though. The refs on the continent do seem to have a completely different build and shape to the ones that we have. I help out with a football tournament that my school runs (it's fairly big, about 18+ other schools bring their teams to compete) and we hire the same ancient, overweight and tired referees every year. The bellies on these guys...fecking hell. Luckily the level is obviously light years away from the top level, but still...
I dislike how often current Premier League refs get in the way of play. I don't know if the lack of crowd noise means that I'm paying more attention to every little detail on the pitch, but they seem to be getting worse at this.