Some comments made by referee Michael Oliver in 2022 will now look very interesting to Nottingham Forest supporters.
Oliver is far and away the country’s top official. Controversy doesn’t seem to follow him around like some of the others and he’s a respected FIFA official.
Yesterday, Forest were on the wrong end of a truly horrible performance from officials Anthony Taylor and Stuart Attwell.
The Reds slipped to a 2-0 defeat as their relegation fears worsened, with Forest cruelly denied three possible penalties.
First, Ashley Young clumsily tackled Giovanni Reyna, kicking through the back of him but nothing was recommended by the VAR.
Then, shortly after, Young handled in the box in a pretty clear-cut incident that was bizarrely overlooked once again.
Finally, in the second half, Forest were denied another one when Young again fouled in the box, this time clattering into Callum Hudson-Odoi.
After the game, Forest released a statement that wascriticised by Alan Shearer and Micah Richards.
One of their gripes was that Attwell is a Luton fan and Ben Jacobs believes Mark Clattenburg spoke to the PGMOL about this on behalf of Forest.
Now, some comments from Oliver in 2022 look very interesting indeed.
Nottingham Forest fans will find Michael Oliver’s comments interesting
Labelling any referee a blatant cheat is a dark road to go down. For that part in their statement, Forest deserve criticising as it’s completely wrong to do such a thing.
In our view, it’s hard not to feel some sympathy with Attwell. Although he had a poor day on VAR yesterday, he should never have been on the game.
If Attwell is a Luton fan, he shouldn’t have been anywhere near a fixture of this magnitude – and that leaves the PGMOL with blood on their hands.
Knowing how referees are appointed is a little bit of an unknown entity but Oliver tried to clear this up in 2022 – and Forest fans should be intrigued.
In an interview with the Daily Mail, he said: “I never referee Newcastle games. 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.”
The Premier League have a lot to answer for and Forest have a point
No club should be allowed to choose their own match officials, that goes without saying. Attwell, however, should have been nowhere near that game yesterday.
Forest didn’t really deserve anything from the game at Goodison Park but they weren’t helped by some shambolic refereeing.
How Anthony Taylor didn’t spot two of the three is a complete and utter mystery but it’s unforgivable for Attwell to get the decisions wrong from the VAR box.
These comments from Oliver make a lot of sense and Attwell must be wishing he’d not been given this game at the weekend.
Nobody is suggesting for one minute that Attwell – or any referee – deliberately sets out to cheat and that notion should be parked firmly at the door.
But as Oliver said two years ago, being placed in this situation is just not worth the hassle and that is all this whole episode has caused.
Forest have to focus on the football side of things for now but there is a sense that this debacle will now rumble on for a little while longer.
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