diff --git a/pkg/apis/triggers/v1alpha1/event_listener_validation.go b/pkg/apis/triggers/v1alpha1/event_listener_validation.go
index e3444ab0f..b41d90a18 100644
--- a/pkg/apis/triggers/v1alpha1/event_listener_validation.go
+++ b/pkg/apis/triggers/v1alpha1/event_listener_validation.go
@@ -272,6 +272,10 @@ func (t *EventListenerTrigger) validate(ctx context.Context) (errs *apis.FieldEr
 		errs = errs.Also(apis.ErrMissingOneOf("template", "triggerRef"))
 	}
 
+	if t.TriggerRef != "" && (t.Template != nil || t.Bindings != nil || t.Interceptors != nil) {
+		errs = errs.Also(apis.ErrMultipleOneOf("triggerRef", "template or bindings or interceptors"))
+	}
+
 	// Validate optional Bindings
 	errs = errs.Also(triggerSpecBindingArray(t.Bindings).validate(ctx))
 	if t.Template != nil {
diff --git a/pkg/apis/triggers/v1alpha1/event_listener_validation_test.go b/pkg/apis/triggers/v1alpha1/event_listener_validation_test.go
index bd3b4a7cc..ca484d9b4 100644
--- a/pkg/apis/triggers/v1alpha1/event_listener_validation_test.go
+++ b/pkg/apis/triggers/v1alpha1/event_listener_validation_test.go
@@ -261,11 +261,6 @@ func Test_EventListenerValidate(t *testing.T) {
 			},
 			Spec: v1alpha1.EventListenerSpec{
 				Triggers: []v1alpha1.EventListenerTrigger{{
-					Bindings: []*v1alpha1.EventListenerBinding{{
-						Ref:        "tb",
-						Kind:       "TriggerBinding",
-						APIVersion: "v1alpha1",
-					}},
 					TriggerRef: "triggerref",
 				}},
 				Resources: v1alpha1.Resources{
@@ -737,6 +732,27 @@ func TestEventListenerValidate_error(t *testing.T) {
 				},
 			},
 		},
+	}, {
+		name: "Specify TriggerTemplate along with TriggerRef",
+		el: &v1alpha1.EventListener{
+			ObjectMeta: metav1.ObjectMeta{
+				Name:      "name",
+				Namespace: "namespace",
+			},
+			Spec: v1alpha1.EventListenerSpec{
+				Triggers: []v1alpha1.EventListenerTrigger{{
+					Template: &v1alpha1.EventListenerTemplate{
+						Ref: ptr.String("tt"),
+					},
+					TriggerRef: "triggerref",
+				}},
+				Resources: v1alpha1.Resources{
+					CustomResource: &v1alpha1.CustomResource{
+						RawExtension: getValidRawData(t),
+					},
+				},
+			},
+		},
 	}}
 
 	for _, test := range tests {