Mel Fox

🚨🚨🚨Very remarkable that the @FA_PGMOL selects Michael Oliver for the FA Cup Final -- despite it appearing to be a possible breach of the FA's "Regulations for the Registration and Control of Referees". 🔺A referee has an obligation to decline an appointment if he has a "material interest" conflicting with his duties. 🔺Does Michael Oliver have a material conflict of interest? Oliver has -- this season -- accepted what reportedly was a well paid assignment from Manchester City's owner. Is this material? A Premier League referee can of course not be on the payroll of an owner of a PL club playing in one of the game he is reffing. An auditor who works as a referee on the side and has a client that is a football club, cannot ref a game involving that team. It is different if your cousin's son play for a team or something like that, in which case it could be argued that it is not material. But it speaks for itself in relation to the Premier League, that a ref can't work for one of the owner of a PL club. What was Oliver paid for his work in the UAE? Say that it was first class tickets to Abu Dahbi, three nights in a five star hotel, and £5,000 for "90 minutes of work" -- I cannot see how anyone could find that it is not 'material'. What would the threshold be, "you can accept payments from an owner of a PL club as long as it is under £50k?" If Michael Oliver becomes the public enemy No 1 of City after awarding three incorrect penalties to MUFC -- does he get another offer to call games for the UAE Pro League next season? So what is the problem? Is there any question-marks if the UAE Pro League is controlled by City's owner, Sheikh Mansour, who is the deputy prime minister of the UAE and a core member of the ruling royal family? It is generally stated that it is not possible in the UAE to separate different parts of government even from the private business sector. KC Murray Rosen -- who is the chair of the PL's Independent Disciplinary Commission handling the City Case -- could for this reason never accept an assignment from the UAE to say prepare a draft for a new constitution or whatever, while being in charge of the City case. It wouldn't even be considered for three seconds. A government official in charge of a large multi billion public procurement for which Sheik Mansour have made a bid, could never accept well paid side job from the UAE while considering Mansour's bid, without facing grave risk of breaking the law. It is unthinkable that this would be accepted. I am not an expert on English law, if anyone familiar with these issues in the UK think I am on thin ice here, let me know. 🔺So why did Howard Webb tell Michael Oliver that he could take the job? And does it matter? First of all, I think Howard Webb should answer this question. Maybe he didn't know that City was owned by the deputy prime minister of the UAE? He was a good ref, maybe geography, politics or whatever isn't one of his strengths... I just cannot imagine that Webb even would consider telling a Michael Oliver that it was OK for him to say accept an offer of 20k from the Glazers to fly to Florida and call a charity game arranged by the Glazers. But I don't know know the reasons for why he accepted it, I am just speculating. But does it matter if Webb gave a green light? Of course not, it is completely irrelevant, at least as far as I can tell. Michael Oliver must comply with the FA's fundamental rules for referees. Howard Webb appears to have zero authority to set aside these rules. And I have said it before, I am very surprised that a PL ref even would consider accepting an assignment from the owner of a PL club. How can they not realize how problematic that is? 🔺But surely, Michael Oliver -- will -- be impartial? But it is completely irrelevant. This is because the Conflict of Interest rules does not exist exclusively to ensure impartiality, it is deemed to be just as important to safe guard the integrity of the game. Let say that it came out that Howard Webb while being a PL ref had been paid 5m by J.P. McManus for a side gig while McManus was the majority owner of Manchester United -- it would significantly damage the integrity of the game, regardless if Webb called every game in an impartial way and never felt any obligation towards Mr. McManus. 🔺From my viewpoint, this is clearly a very problematic issue and I have to say that I think that it is remarkable that the the PGMOL -- in light of the above -- still appoints Michael Oliver to referee the FA Cup Final when Manchester City is playing in it.