Michael Oliver is a man who arbitrates football games so that the rest of us can enjoy seeing them or making a living playing in them. Without an referee, as Jamie Carragher remembered Sky Sports spectators on the weekend, there is no game.
And yet, today Michael Oliver is also a man whose family is under police protection at home because he made an honest decision to send a player for a cynical and dangerous lack of an opponent.
This is the stage we have now achieved with the treatment of officials in this country. It is not just that they are routinely slandered on social networks and accuse them of being corrupt every time they make a decision with which a manager or a player does not agree.
It's a lot, much worse than that. When Oliver woke up Sunday morning, the day after he sent Myles Lewis-Skell of Arsenal for a challenge in Matt Doherty by Wolverhampton Wanderers in Molineux, there was a police car on his street.
He and his partner, Laura, assumed that a misfortune had happened to a neighbor, but when they talked to one of the officers, they were told that the police were there to control their safety.
There was a threat of death against Oliver and his two -year -old daughter and, although the authorities thought he was probably a keyboard warrior, the Metropolitan Police had passed the problem to Oliver's local force because they could not be sure.
Michael Oliver and his family have undergone disgusting death threats during the weekend
Oliver's decision to send Myles Lewis-Skell of Arsenal caused controversy
Led to a furious reaction of the players, staff and arsenal followers after
There were also other threats due to Lewis-Skelly sending. You know the guy: messages of fans who said they knew where they lived and that they were going to bark all their windows. Enough for the police to make regular patrols beyond their home.
Enough, also for the game of the game games, the organization of the referee, to publish a strongly written statement after the torrent of evil abuse aimed at Oliver.
“We are horrified by the threats and abuse aimed at Michael Oliver after the Wolverhampton Wanderers accessory against Arsenal,” the statement said. “No official must be subject to any form of abuse, much less the abhorred attacks aimed at Michael and his family in the last 24 hours.”
This is not the first time that things like this have happened to Oliver, of course. Nothing of the sort. But it is getting worse. And more frequent. Three weeks ago, someone said they were going to fly their car with their family inside him.
That was after having granted a penalty to Liverpool when Matthijs of Ligt of Manchester United had handled the ball in the area during the 2-2 draw of the teams in Anfield earlier this month. It was not revealed at that time, but that threat also caused a police investigation.
This is where we are: Handball decisions, even those that snatch small dissent, the same car pump threats these days.
The atmosphere around the first flight matches now, particularly on social networks and in the media, where hunger for clips and viral comments is increasingly unbridled, has become increasingly feverish and arbitrators are easy meat . When Oliver sent Lewis-Skelly, he was fed through MÃncer.
“I have never seen that in my life,” said Pat Nevin in BBC Radio 5 Live, leading a choir of experts and presenters who profess horrified, amazed, amazed, stunned, bewildered and generally traumatized and for the evidence of Oliver the error of the error of Oliver
There was a disgusting threat of death against Oliver and his two -year -old daughter, while others said they knew where they lived and that they were going to bark all their windows.
Collective hysteria and the questions surrounding Oliver's integrity are ridiculous and sinister
Lewis-Skelly Tackle in Doherty was pragmatic, but it was also a challenge of studs for an opponent who moved at speed that could have taken it out of the game for some time
The collective hysteria of the reaction was actually quite strange. Ask referees decisions by all means. We all do it. But the number of conspiracy theories that abound over Oliver and his colleagues are now ridiculous and sinister.
And so, in this case, the general impulse was to chase the referee, and the VAR, Darren England, instead of offering any criticism in all Lewis-Skellly for a challenge that was really unpleasant.
Lewis-Skelly is a young man and a fantastic player. His performance against Tottenham in the Northern London derby the week before he spent the last time of a player for the top and has character and guts and widespread impulse and intelligence of matches.
But it was strange how many observers they rushed to defend him. Some talked about the management of the game and taking one for the team and how the lack in Doherty was just a harmless trip.
The truth is that now the rush for the trial has decreased, some are reviewing their opinion. Lewis-Skelly Tackle in Doherty was a pragmatic work, but it was also a challenge of studs for an opponent who was moving at speed that could have taken Doherty out of the game for some time.
Another thing: in the fixed images shown by Lewis-Skelly Tachuelas that crossed Doherty's leg, just above the ankle, the ball is not even in the frame. I'm going to repeat it: Lewis-Skelly is a wonderful talent and a great perspective, but we don't defend it for that Tackle because that way, madness lies.
My own point of view is similar to that of Jamie Redknapp, who, while launching a passionate Oliver defense in Sky, said he felt that Lewis-Skell's challenge was 'an amber'. He is right. I was somewhere in that area between a yellow and red card.
I hoped to see Oliver brandling a yellow, but when you look at the repetitions, it seems more a red. Whatever the side that is found, it is a long one, far from being the cadastrophicly incorrect decision that portrayed it so many.
So, perhaps we should ask ourselves why there is a growing obsession with blaming the referees for everything. The pressure on managers has something to do with that, the need to blame someone else, the inability to assume responsibility for a defeat, the taboo to criticize your own player, the desire of some broadcasters to improve their fans of fans -Chery of second joining the mafia.
Whatever the explanation, the result is that a referee and his young and terrified family are sitting in a house, a police car patrolling outside, wondering where the next threat will come from to kill them, wondering how the hell does a job he allows We to enjoy a beautiful game that once came to this.
The fact that a referee and his young terrified family are sitting in a house, a police car patrolling outside, wondering where the next threat will come to kill them is shameful.
Brotherhood remains in football
My favorite part of the transmission during the weekend was the comment of BBC 5Live on the game of Aston Villa-West Ham in Villa Park and particularly the passage where John Murray and Stephen Warnock were commenting on the sequelae of the Tyrone Mings collision With Mohammed Kudus.
Mings, a wonderful player and a popular and attractive man who has fought back from a serious knee injury, was clearly injured and the concern in the voice of Warnock and his supplicant with the bank of the town to take off Mings, and that a caution was a moving reminder. Both of the brotherhood that exists between players and former players and the precariousness of a player's career.
Tyrone Mings was forced by Aston Villa months after returning from a serious knee injury
The Australian Open left me disappointed
I saw the last points of the male singles final of the Australian Open on the weekend. Everything I felt was a brief disappointing noise when Jannik Sinner reached the winning cross -country pass to overcome Alexander Zverev and claim the title.
The victory was predictably fulfilled with collective amnesia about the fact that the future of the male game seems to be in the hands of a player whose recent anti -doping violations make him a type of strange hero.