A&H

Anthony Taylor to referee the FA cup final!

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In a perfectly reasonable and understandable (in my opinion)break from tradition, Taylor will get his second final. The FA say that they feel it would be unfair to give a ref their only cup final behind closed doors so have given it to Taylor. I presume they see him as the best ref in the country then ahead of Oliver.

His 2nd crack at Chelsea v Arsenal as well!
 
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Made up for him. No surprise really. That wil be a quiz question in years to come. First referee to referee FA Cup Final twice (cue a historian who knows that to be different ;))

Ps maybe it was a close date for Oliver 😂
 
Made up for him. No surprise really. That wil be a quiz question in years to come. First referee to referee FA Cup Final twice (cue a historian who knows that to be different ;))

Ps maybe it was a close date for Oliver 😂

apparently he's the 8th! but no one since 1901
 
Yes, I think this make Taylor the No1 referee in the FA eyes.

I think this does mean that Lee Mason won't get a final ever.
 
Yes, I think this make Taylor the No1 referee in the FA eyes.

I think this does mean that Lee Mason won't get a final ever.

While you're probably right, I'm assuming that Oliver will have the middle for the Man United-Leicester game, which is essentially a Champions League play-in game. Given that the difference between the Champions League vs. the Europa League group stage is worth close to 12.5M Euros https://www.statista.com/chart/1389...marches through,nearly four times that amount.), the case can be made that the ManU-Leicester game carries much more value than the FA Cup final.

I don't know how the FA, Premier League, and PGMOL all work together when assigning FA Cup vs Premier League when it comes to who has priority in assigning officials. However, I would imagine the Premier League would have a preference of who they would want to referee such a critical match (as well as the Chelsea-Wolves game now that Chelsea's safety is not assured following their loss to Liverpool), while the FA would also have a preference. But I admit I don't understand that process.

EDIT - Atkinson has Leicester-ManU, Oliver has West Ham-Villa, Kavanagh has Everton-Bournemouth, Dean has Arsenal-Watford, and Attwell has Chelsea-Wolves. I think those are the five games with a lot on the line in terms of European placing and relegation. Given the timing of the assignments, I'm guessing PGMOL and the Premier League thought West Ham-Villa was in line to be a "loser leaves town" match before West Ham picked up an unexpected point yesterday.
 
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While you're probably right, I'm assuming that Oliver will have the middle for the Man United-Leicester game, which is essentially a Champions League play-in game. Given that the difference between the Champions League vs. the Europa League group stage is worth close to 12.5M Euros https://www.statista.com/chart/13892/price-money-europa-league-vs-champions-league/#:~:text=A team that marches through,nearly four times that amount.), the case can be made that the ManU-Leicester game carries much more value than the FA Cup final.

I don't know how the FA, Premier League, and PGMOL all work together when assigning FA Cup vs Premier League when it comes to who has priority in assigning officials. However, I would imagine the Premier League would have a preference of who they would want to referee such a critical match (as well as the Chelsea-Wolves game now that Chelsea's safety is not assured following their loss to Liverpool), while the FA would also have a preference. But I admit I don't understand that process.
Honestly, I think you're over-thinking it. The FA has a proud tradition of finding the second-best referee in the country and then going out of their way to pretend he's the best. See Clattenburg vs Atkinson when it came to who was sent to Euro 2016 and Dean (or pretty much anyone else!) vs Webb in the late 2000's.

Nothing complicated or clever going on here, they're just wrong about who their best referee is.
 
Honestly, I think you're over-thinking it. The FA has a proud tradition of finding the second-best referee in the country and then going out of their way to pretend he's the best. See Clattenburg vs Atkinson when it came to who was sent to Euro 2016 and Dean (or pretty much anyone else!) vs Webb in the late 2000's.

Nothing complicated or clever going on here, they're just wrong about who their best referee is.

Discussions like this always fascinate me. It does seem like England's domestic people think Taylor is the top referee, while UEFA and FIFA seem to think Oliver is. It was Oliver who went to the U20 World Cup (and, in my opinion, performed well enough to earn the final despite my compatriot Ismail Elfath also doing very well and getting the final). Oliver had the Juventus-Real Madrid second leg that has defined his career to this point (and for me, it was a very positive definition - the penalty and the send-off of Buffon were absolutely the right calls). However, this year Taylor did have several high-profile Champions League games and did well in those games - probably better in those games than he did in England, to be honest (but I'd say some of that would be tinged on how VAR impacts how the PGMOL referees in the Premier League).

I think both are very good, but I personally think Oliver is better.
 
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It is good to be talking about 2 excellent referees. And other good ones on the promotion route.

It is definitely better than late 1990's when Durkin and Riley were the best we could manage.......
 
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