The Ref Stop

Liverpool - Man City

T

The Ginger Ref

Well-Known Member
Level 7 Referee
At a time when confidence in match officials is at an all-time low (if that's even possible), the PGMOL has, in its infinite wisdom, chosen to appoint the following officials to what could be the biggest game of the season:
  • Chris Kavanagh (Ashton-under-Lyne, Greater Manchester)
  • Anthony Taylor (Altrincham, Greater Manchester)
  • Paul Tierney (Wigan, Greater Manchester)
Now, I want to be clear that I am not implying any corruption or bias (nor do I have a horse in the race), and I fully acknowledge that CK and AT are widely regarded as two of the top referees in England. However, I was under the impression that Premier League officials are not supposed to referee matches in the town or city where they were born, live, or support. With this in mind, and given that Michael Oliver is officiating elsewhere this weekend, wouldn’t he have been a better choice for this fixture?

Ultimately, this decision just isn't a good look for PGMOL, especially if something controversial were to occur during the match. The hordes have already sharpened their pitchforks (in Liverpool, on the blue side of Manchester and the blue & red sides of London) and won’t hesitate to light the torches if things go awry!

It's a situation that, frankly, could have been avoided with a bit more foresight.
 

Attachments

  • Screenshot 2024-11-27 at 08.52.13.png
    Screenshot 2024-11-27 at 08.52.13.png
    93.4 KB · Views: 17
The Ref Stop
I think to suggest that it should be problematic for someone from Wigan to officiate on a Manchester City game, just because Wigan is technically part of Greater Manchester, is a little bit of a stretch.

It's about 50 minutes from Wigan centre to The Etihad and only 45 minutes from Wigan centre to Anfield...
 
the choice of ref is not going to make a difference to the result...expecting a 5 goal Liverpool win
 
The Ginger Ref said:
However, I was under the impression that Premier League officials are not supposed to referee matches in the town or city where they were born, live, or support.
Click to expand...
Then I think you may possibly be under a mistaken impression. As far as I'm aware, the only team(s) a PGMOL official may not officiate for are the team(s) they declare an affiliation to (usually only the team they support).

Many people are born in a town or city but then their families move somewhere different while they are still very young. Often a person grows up having no attachment to the team from the town they were born in.

Using too wide a set of criteria for excluding officials from games could end up making game assignments an almost impossible task.
 
Last edited:
RefereeX said:
I think to suggest that it should be problematic for someone from Wigan to officiate on a Manchester City game, just because Wigan is technically part of Greater Manchester, is a little bit of a stretch.

It's about 50 minutes from Wigan centre to The Etihad and only 45 minutes from Wigan centre to Anfield...
Click to expand...

bester said:
Greater Manchester isn't a city it's a relatively recent ceremonial county.
Click to expand...

I don't think geography is a mitigating factor for outraged football fans.

Wigan is much closer than say Northumberland (MO), Warwickshire (Attwell), Sheffield (Pawson) or Australia 🤣

As far as I understand, Peter Bankes, Michael Salisbury and Rob Jones aren't considered for Liverpool games but they aren't listed as disclosing being a fan of a Merseyside club.
 
RefereeX said:
I think to suggest that it should be problematic for someone from Wigan to officiate on a Manchester City game, just because Wigan is technically part of Greater Manchester, is a little bit of a stretch.

It's about 50 minutes from Wigan centre to The Etihad and only 45 minutes from Wigan centre to Anfield...
Click to expand...
Agree.

Wigan is, similar to where I am originally from, fairly equidistant between Manchester and Liverpool.

Think this is a non-story myself.

Excluding these officials from these games suggests that they should not be involved in any games that directly impact the final standings e.g. not referee almost half of the Premier league as the same could be said in those games as much as this one.

They are professionals, with significant levels of oversight. There really isn't a story here at all
 
The Ginger Ref said:
I don't think geography is a mitigating factor for outraged football fans.

Wigan is much closer than say Northumberland (MO), Warwickshire (Attwell), Sheffield (Pawson) or Australia 🤣

As far as I understand, Peter Bankes, Michael Salisbury and Rob Jones aren't considered for Liverpool games but they aren't listed as disclosing being a fan of a Merseyside club.
Click to expand...
I know why Peter & Rob aren't considered for Liverpool games, but why isn't Michael Salisbury? He was on VAR the other week against Arsenal.
 
The Ginger Ref said:
At a time when confidence in match officials is at an all-time low (if that's even possible), the PGMOL has, in its infinite wisdom, chosen to appoint the following officials to what could be the biggest game of the season:
  • Chris Kavanagh (Ashton-under-Lyne, Greater Manchester)
  • Anthony Taylor (Altrincham, Greater Manchester)
  • Paul Tierney (Wigan, Greater Manchester)
Now, I want to be clear that I am not implying any corruption or bias (nor do I have a horse in the race), and I fully acknowledge that CK and AT are widely regarded as two of the top referees in England. However, I was under the impression that Premier League officials are not supposed to referee matches in the town or city where they were born, live, or support. With this in mind, and given that Michael Oliver is officiating elsewhere this weekend, wouldn’t he have been a better choice for this fixture?

Ultimately, this decision just isn't a good look for PGMOL, especially if something controversial were to occur during the match. The hordes have already sharpened their pitchforks (in Liverpool, on the blue side of Manchester and the blue & red sides of London) and won’t hesitate to light the torches if things go awry!

It's a situation that, frankly, could have been avoided with a bit more foresight.
Click to expand...
How many more times does this have to come up? If has absolutely nothing to do with where the officials live, and hasn't for many years, they have to declare who they support and that determines which teams they cannot referee. In the old postcode system you had the ridiculous situation where Mark Halsey could (and did) referee QPR even though he supported them, but couldn't referee Bolton because he lived there but was born in Welwyn Garden City. Had I by some miracle of a lot of luck (and some would say a major ability boost) made it to the Football League, I wouldn't have been able to referee any of the London teams because I have a London postcode, yet I was born in Yorkshire and support Sheffield Wednesday. The whole system was a nonsense.

This is a complete non-story.
 
bester said:
Halsey used to train with Bolton.
Click to expand...
Yes, but only because he couldn't referee them. Not being able to referee them because of his postcode came ahead of him training with them.

And training with them is pushing it a little, he used their facilities yes, but don't think he was joining in their 6-a-side games.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top