The curtain-raiser to the new European club competition season at the Finnish capital’s Olympic Stadium is just the first date in a packed diary for the 37-year-old official from the north-east English county of Northumberland. By the end of the year, Oliver will not only add further regular assignments in England’s Premier League and top European competitions to his career CV – a cherished ambition also lies in front of him in November and December when he joins the refereeing team for the FIFA World Cup final tournament in Qatar.
It's a heady moment for a referee who has excelled at his profession, especially since his early 20s. However, Oliver firmly refuses to get ahead of himself. The Super Cup assignment in Finland is the main current priority at the forefront of his thoughts. “I’m both delighted and excited about Wednesday,” says Oliver, a native of the town of Ashington. “You never expect to be appointed for these games until you get the call. It’s a showpiece occasion, and a nice way to start an important season.” Ashington, a town of 28,000 inhabitants located some 25 kilometres north of Newcastle upon Tyne, holds a special place in English football’s heart. The town has been the birthplace of football greats such as England’s 1966 World Cup-winning brothers Bobby and Jack Charlton, and their mother’s cousin Jackie Milburn, the iconic Newcastle United and England centre-forward of the late 1940s and early 1950s. Oliver is a current member of a long and distinguished list of personalities from various sports who have put Ashington on the map. “It’s a small town,” he reflects, “but there’s a lot of sporting activity going on, and I think that people in the town can’t not have been influenced in some way by the fact that so many sports personalities, such as the Charltons, have come from Ashington.” A proud list of refereeing achievements is Oliver’s contribution to Ashington’s sporting legacy. He was the youngest English Football League assistant referee, then the youngest Football League referee and, in 2010 – at the age of 25 years and 182 days – he became the youngest referee to take charge of an English Premier League match. The international badge inevitably followed in 2012.
Refereeing was already in the family blood – Oliver’s father Clive also refereed at the higher levels of English football – but a career as a referee wasn’t exactly a foregone conclusion when the younger Oliver was a teenager. “I played football at the Newcastle United academy, firstly as a centre-forward and then as a centre-half – but I would never have reached the heights that I eventually managed as a referee,” he remembers. “I took a break from playing at the age of 14, and my Dad encouraged me to try refereeing. The result was that I never went back to playing. Even though my Dad was a referee, there was no pressure on me at the time, I was never forced into anything. The only condition that I was given was when my parents bought me my first kit. They told me that if I didn’t referee six games, I would have to pay for the kit!” Father Clive’s wise encouragement and experiences gradually rubbed off on his son. “I caught the refereeing bug,” Oliver says. The career move from playing to refereeing soon proved to be a resounding success as he rose through the ranks. “I was fortunate enough to be promoted every season for six or seven years,” he recalls, “with each promotion taking me a step closer to the Premier League.” The ascent was so swift that the Oliver family enjoyed a unique accolade in 2009, when father and son took charge of English Football League divisional promotion play-offs at Wembley Stadium on successive days. Since then, top appointments have come thick and fast for Michael, including two English FA Cup finals in 2018 and 2021, the English League Cup final in 2016 and, on the international stage, a place in the referees’ team for UEFA Euro 2020, where he took charge of three matches.
This exceptional journey has eventually led to Wednesday’s big date in Helsinki. Oliver will be accompanied by an experienced team – assistant referees and compatriots Stuart Burt and Simon Bennett, and Lithuanian fourth official Donatas Rumšas. The VAR role has been assigned to Poland's Tomasz Kwiatkowski, who will be assisted by his fellow countryman Bartosz Frankowski, as well as Portugal's Tiago Martins. “The team is crucial - it wouldn’t be possible for a referee to handle a match otherwise,” Oliver says. He emphasises the close ties that he enjoys with his assistants. “You start out by forming a friendship, you learn about each other both as people and referees, and it turns into a genuine bond.” VAR, he underlines, “has made the referee’s job so much easier.” Management of people and situations is, in Oliver’s eyes, an essential part of the top referee’s armoury. “We’ve all done the same exams, so it then comes down to how you’re able to deal with people,” he explains. “You’ve got to be flexible, it’s not merely a question of acting in a set way to a specific incident. I think it’s also important that there’s a spirit of mutual respect between referees and players. This is usually the case at the highest level because everyone on both sides recognises the hard work that has gone into arriving at this level. It’s extremely important that you’re able to build up trust between each other on the field.”
Reaching refereeing’s summits at a young age also means that Oliver has had plenty of time to observe the huge changes in elite football and refereeing over the past decade. “Football has gone up to yet another level, and referees have had to do the same,” he says. “There’s been huge changes for us in terms of preparation, diet, training and how fitness is measured. We’ve had to become top athletes alongside the players.” A keen golfer with an excellent handicap away from football, Oliver is determined to make every refereeing moment count at this memorable stage of his career pathway. Helsinki will provide another significant milestone this week. “I’d obviously like to referee more games like this,” he emphasises. “And there’s a lot to look forward to – the World Cup, domestic and UEFA matches. I’d like to be part of the Euro team in two years’ time. I want to get in the best of shape for everything to come. Wednesday’s match is the best possible way to start what I hope will be a really strong season.”
Source: UEFA
