English referee Michael Oliver infuriated many Manchester United fans by awarding a shocking penalty to West Ham United in their win at the weekend.
He tasked referee David Coote to look at a non-existent challenge from Matthijs de Ligt on Danny Ings, basically urging to give the penalty.
After the game, a picture of Oliver posing in a Newcastle United kit started going viral.
This is a picture from many years ago showing the referee in a bar with a couple of mates. Oliver is actually born and raised in Northumberland, which is close by to the Tyneside.
Oliver has admitted to being a Newcastle fan in the past, stating: “”I never referee Newcastle game.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.”
The Premier League restrict referees to officiate matches involving teams from where they reside in or the region where they were born into.
There is a conspiracy that he screwed Manchester United as they are Newcastle’s close competitors for a top-6 spot in the Premier League.
Oliver has revealed he even travels for Newcastle’s matches at times and was in attendance in the away stand in Newcastle’s game against Sheffield United in the 2020/21 Premier League season, stating: “I went to Sheffield United with Newcastle as a fan in the away end last season and we thought we had had a goal disallowed.”
