Michael Oliver has already named fixtures he doesn't want to referee - 'Not worth hassle'
Michael Oliver has already named fixtures he doesn't want to referee - 'Not worth hassle'
Share:
Under-fire Michael Oliver has made it perfectly clear which Premier League games he'd want no part in. The 39-year-old referee and his family have been subject to online abuse after controversially sending Arsenal's Myles Lewis-Skelly off in their 1-0 win at Wolves on Saturday. Youngster Lewis-Skelly was shown a straight red card after fouling Matt Doherty to stop a Wolves break inside their own half, which was deemed "serious foul play" on the match report.
Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) issued a statement on Sunday condemning the "appalling" actions of the culprits, some of whom targeted Oliver and his children. Former PGMOL chief Keith Hackett told talkSPORT he'd recommend Oliver take a break from refereeing in light of recent events.
It could complicate matters in the future should the Northumberland native find himself assigned to oversee Arsenal fixtures. And it wouldn't be the only roadblock given Oliver - a self-confessed Newcastle United fan - has already outlined games pertaining to his team that could pose a problem.
"I never referee Newcastle games," he told the Daily Mail in 2021. "We have to declare if we have an allegiance to any club or if a family member works at a club. You can’t do any match involving that team, and I can’t do Sunderland, either, for obvious reasons.
"Because Newcastle are invariably involved in a relegation battle, when you get to March or April, it means I can’t referee anyone around them towards the bottom three. If Newcastle needed a point to survive and the team they were fighting to get above was, say, Villa, I couldn’t referee Villa’s game either. I wouldn’t want to. It’s not worth the hassle.".
