Newcastle fan Michael Oliver is our ref tomorrow

AFC NimbleThumb

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Up to the players to put it beyond doubt. He’s been shit for us before & will be again, hopefully we can get enough distance in goals that his crap doesn’t matter.
 

Gandalf Greyhame

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Unpopular opinion coming up.

The probability of getting into footballing professions without supporting popular clubs is very low, and expecting top quality refs to be recused from games where they could be 'perceived' to have conflict of interest is simply unfair because it would be too many games where they'd have to be absent, and it would be very difficult to enforce given the dynamic nature of both the PL table and the game theory of conflict.

These standards are difficult to enforce with lobbying in parliament, why on earth are refs (who're paid a fraction of the footballers themselves) expected to honour them?

Michael Oliver has reffed FA cup finals, top WC games and key CL knockout ties. I would trust his professionalism for tomorrow.

All this is only valid till he fecks up a penalty call or a red card against us. In which case, sack the biased cnut and sell the FA.
 

OrcaFat

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Unpopular opinion coming up.

The probability of getting into footballing professions without supporting popular clubs is very low, and expecting top quality refs to be recused from games where they could be 'perceived' to have conflict of interest is simply unfair because it would be too many games where they'd have to be absent, and it would be very difficult to enforce given the dynamic nature of both the PL table and the game theory of conflict.

These standards are difficult to enforce with lobbying in parliament, why on earth are refs (who're paid a fraction of the footballers themselves) expected to honour them?

Michael Oliver has reffed FA cup finals, top WC games and key CL knockout ties. I would trust his professionalism for tomorrow.

All this is only valid till he fecks up a penalty call or a red card against us. In which case, sack the biased cnut and sell the FA.
I like the last clause of this!
 

Oscar Bonavena

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Unpopular opinion coming up.

The probability of getting into footballing professions without supporting popular clubs is very low, and expecting top quality refs to be recused from games where they could be 'perceived' to have conflict of interest is simply unfair because it would be too many games where they'd have to be absent, and it would be very difficult to enforce given the dynamic nature of both the PL table and the game theory of conflict.

These standards are difficult to enforce with lobbying in parliament, why on earth are refs (who're paid a fraction of the footballers themselves) expected to honour them?

Michael Oliver has reffed FA cup finals, top WC games and key CL knockout ties. I would trust his professionalism for tomorrow.

All this is only valid till he fecks up a penalty call or a red card against us. In which case, sack the biased cnut and sell the FA.
Yeah I agree. He's one of the most high profile refs in European football, I don't think he's going into games with a predetermined plan to feck over one team or another!

Anyway, I think it's a moot point. The way form is going, Newcastle will finish comfortably third. Our biggest rivals for CL football will be Brighton and Spurs, and we gave to play both of them away.
 

Tincanalley

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Will be interesting to read this thread later today (after game). I’d expect him to make an extra effort to show no favour to either side.
 

Dannn411

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He's a terrible ref regardless of who he supports. The players need to recognise that and play above him.
 

OrcaFat

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Yeah I agree. He's one of the most high profile refs in European football, I don't think he's going into games with a predetermined plan to feck over one team or another!

Anyway, I think it's a moot point. The way form is going, Newcastle will finish comfortably third. Our biggest rivals for CL football will be Brighton and Spurs, and we gave to play both of them away.
I would suggest he is human and susceptible to error, especially if he is vested in the outcome of the match, no matter how hard he tries to forget that.

I agree with those who say there’s no point worrying about it and also those who say we have to win the game regardless.

I don’t think Newcastle are certs for third because we have a good run in and we have key players coming back.
 

amolbhatia50k

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If you're a Premier League ref then you shouldn't be going to watch a specific PL club in your spare time, let alone paddling about in the fountains at Trafalgar Square before they play a cup final against another PL club at Wembley.

It's just not a good look whichever way you spin it. If he gives a soft decision our way tomorrow it'll be seen as him trying not to be bias because he supports Newcastle, and if he fecks us over with a decision it'll be the opposite.

He can't win. It's pretty ridiculous that the FA and PGMOL have allowed this to happen. He shouldn't be reffing any games involving the teams between 3rd and 6th for the remainder of the season, at the very least.
Well said. I didn't even knew this was happening. I was just bemoaning him reffing our games because he's shit
 

amolbhatia50k

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Up to the players to put it beyond doubt. He’s been shit for us before & will be again, hopefully we can get enough distance in goals that his crap doesn’t matter.
The PL is a very hard league and we don't have a striker. We aren't that many winning games comfortably this season imo. So like most teams we need refs to do their job properly.
 

OrcaFat

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If you're a Premier League ref then you shouldn't be going to watch a specific PL club in your spare time, let alone paddling about in the fountains at Trafalgar Square before they play a cup final against another PL club at Wembley.

It's just not a good look whichever way you spin it. If he gives a soft decision our way tomorrow it'll be seen as him trying not to be bias because he supports Newcastle, and if he fecks us over with a decision it'll be the opposite.

He can't win. It's pretty ridiculous that the FA and PGMOL have allowed this to happen. He shouldn't be reffing any games involving the teams between 3rd and 6th for the remainder of the season, at the very least.
Yeah that’s basically what I’ve been saying as well. He won’t be deliberately biased but he is biased in his mind, there’s no escaping that.
 

rcoobc

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Think it's ridiculous that it's being brought up.
 

Pexbo

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Think it's ridiculous that it's being brought up.


These are Michael Oliver’s own words.

We are now in March or April.
Newcastle are involved in a relegation top 4 battle.
He can’t apparently can referee anyone around them towards the bottom three top four

Can you explain to us why he said what he said about Newcastle around the relegation zone not applying to Newcastle around the Top 4 and why he no longer thinks it’s “not worth the hassle”?
 

Xaviesta

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By the Premier League's own rules, Michael Oliver shouldn't be refereeing this game. It should be easy enough to not have Michael Oliver take charge of a match that has ramifications for teams hoping to qualify for Europe.

If United control the controllables and play well enough they should be able to beat a team in a relegation scrap regardless of the referee.
 

Random Precision

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The ref in the Newcastle game this afternoon is Chris Kavanagh………..now I wonder which part of the country he’s from?
 

Pexbo

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By the Premier League's own rules, Michael Oliver shouldn't be refereeing this game. It should be easy enough to not have Michael Oliver take charge of a match that has ramifications for teams hoping to qualify for Europe.

If United control the controllables and play well enough they should be able to beat a team in a relegation scrap regardless of the referee.
As I said above, my worry isn’t that he might go nuclear and give United a red card or Everton a penalty or refuse us penalties, it’s that he’s more subtle and manages the game in their favour. We’ve seen the impact it can have. I’ve watched a lot of matches recently where the referee has been applauded for keeping his cards in his pocket early doors when he could have given two or three yellows in the first 5-10 minutes.

All it takes is a soft or two yellow or two anywhere across our back 6 and we have to defend differently - it sends a message that we have to be careful.

Conversely he can give Everton’s defensive players the opposite luxury and let them play dirty blocking tactics without worrying about a yellow

Then there’s how he optimises advantage - he can give United a free kick when we are in a position to counter attack. He’s giving United a free kick right? Stop complaining.

Added time - Everton might waste 10-15 minutes and we get 2-3 minutes added.

Will he do this? To be honest he always does it against us so I’d be surprised if he doesn’t.
 

Offside

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This place really is no better than RAWK these days with threads like this.
 

Pexbo

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These are Michael Oliver’s own words.

We are now in March or April.
Newcastle are involved in a relegation top 4 battle.
He can’t apparently can referee anyone around them towards the bottom three top four

Can you explain to us why he said what he said about Newcastle around the relegation zone not applying to Newcastle around the Top 4 and why he no longer thinks it’s “not worth the hassle”?
This place really is no better than RAWK these days with threads like this.
Can you give your reasoning on why what Oliver said above no longer applies?
 

Cloud7

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The constant moaning about refs these days feels so small time. We've always gotten bad calls against us because the refs have always been crap to an extent. The ones around now are just all especially bad. We're better than this. Leave this crap for RAWK.
 

Pexbo

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The constant moaning about refs these days feels so small time. We've always gotten bad calls against us because the refs have always been crap to an extent. The ones around now are just all especially bad. We're better than this. Leave this crap for RAWK.
We are level on points with Newcastle battling for Top 4. A Newcastle fan that said he’s not allowed to referee fixtures which could impact Newcastle and also wouldn’t want to anyway is referring our game and you don’t think it’s worthy of discussion?
 

Barthez

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Does this mean that Oliver is Never allowed to ref a Newcastle game?
 

Cloud7

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We are level on points with Newcastle battling for Top 4. A Newcastle fan that said he’s not allowed to referee fixtures which could impact Newcastle and also wouldn’t want to anyway is referring our game and you don’t think it’s worthy of discussion?
Every referee is going to have a preference of some sort. Even if it's not a team that they directly support, they will have preferences in one way or another, as do we all. Unless you try to find referees who aren't football fans at all this sort of thing is inevitable. It's just something we have to get on with. We can't go seeking out these connections everywhere.
 

Pexbo

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Every referee is going to have a preference of some sort. Even if it's not a team that they directly support, they will have preferences in one way or another, as do we all. Unless you try to find referees who aren't football fans at all this sort of thing is inevitable. It's just something we have to get on with. We can't go seeking out these connections everywhere.
There is literally rules in place to stop this conflict of interest happening. There isn’t a shortage of referees, it would be very easy to swap Oliver with someone else.
 

IRN-BRUno

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It is a strange appointment especially given that interview. He's in a situation where he can't win, either getting accused of making decisions against us to favour Newcastle, or the opposite because he knows this has been brought up and he's trying to avoid looking biased. As he says himself, it's not worth the hassle.
 

rcoobc

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It’s just a bit of fun. Can’t you get on board with criticising a shit ref who also happens to be a wanker?
I've seen it all over the place, Reddit etc, think it's weird.