Revealed: The sickening death threats sent to Michael Oliver and his two-year-old daughter after Myles Lewis-Skelly red card and the horror that awaited his terrified family when he returned home, writes OLIVER HOLT
Revealed: The sickening death threats sent to Michael Oliver and his two-year-old daughter after Myles Lewis-Skelly red card and the horror that awaited his terrified family when he returned home, writes OLIVER HOLT
Share:
Michael Oliver is a man who referees games of football so that the rest of us might enjoy watching them or make a handsome living from playing in them. Without a referee, as Jamie Carragher reminded Sky Sports viewers at the weekend, there is no game.
![[Oliver's decision to send off Arsenal's Myles Lewis-Skelly against Wolves caused controversy]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2025/01/27/11/94555937-14329339-image-a-4_1737978975163.jpg)
And yet today Michael Oliver is also a man whose family is under police protection at their home because he made an honest decision to send off a player for a cynical, dangerous studs-up foul on an opponent. This is the stage we have reached now with the treatment of officials in this country. It is not just that they are routinely slandered on social media and accused by fans of being corrupt every time they make a decision that a manager or a player disagrees with.
![[It led to a furious reaction from Arsenal players, staff and supporters in the aftermath]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2025/01/27/11/94555933-14329339-image-a-5_1737978989538.jpg)
It is a lot, lot worse than that. When Oliver woke up on Sunday morning, the day after he had sent off Arsenal’s Myles Lewis-Skelly for a challenge on Wolverhampton Wanderers’ Matt Doherty at Molineux, there was a police car in his street. He and his partner, Lucy, assumed that a misfortune had befallen a neighbour but when they spoke to one of the officers, they were told that the police were there to check on their safety.
![[There was a disgusting death threat made against Oliver and his two-year-old daughter, while others said they knew where he lived and that they were going to brick all his windows]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2025/01/27/11/94556423-14329339-image-a-6_1737979064554.jpg)
There had been a death threat made against Oliver and his two-year-old daughter and even though the authorities thought it was probably a keyboard warrior, the Metropolitan Police had passed the issue on to Oliver’s local force because they could not be sure.
![[The collective hysteria and questions surrounding Oliver's integrity is laughable and sinister]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2025/01/27/11/94556425-14329339-image-a-7_1737979066679.jpg)
