Newcastle United fan Michael Oliver will not be refereeing the World Cup final on Sunday.
The Premier League’s top referee can’t of course referee competitive games involving Newcastle United, as they are the club he is happy to say are the team he supports (unlike the vast majority of referees who claim (pretend?) not to support any major Premier League club, so they aren’t banned from refereeing any major matches such as cup finals and key EPL games).
So for similar reasons Michael Oliver couldn’t referee the 2026 World Cup final if England get there.
It turns out though that the NUFC fan can’t referee the final on Sunday whoever wins in Atlanta on Wednesday night, whether that is England or Argentina.
English referees are blocked by Fifa from officiating Argentina games and the same when it comes to England matches and referees from Argentina.
This is due to a longstanding Fifa policy on the two countries. It was brought in to deal with ongoing ill-feeling around the Falkland Islands.
So Fifa don’t allow Michael Oliver or any other English official to referee Argentina matches.
The same for Facundo Tello and other referees from Argentina when it comes to England games, so Tello is also already ruled out of Sunday’s final in New Jersey.
Anthony Taylor was also prevented from having any chance of refereeing the 2022 World Cup final once Argentina qualified, they went on to beat France.
Michael Oliver has though already created a little bit of history, as he has now refereed more World Cup matches than any other English official. Friday’s quarter-final featuring Belgium v Spain quarter-final took his total to seven.
It all feels a bit harsh on somebody like Michael Oliver, he wasn’t born until 1985, three years after the Falklands War.
Where do you draw the line, who decides? Which wars are relevant and how long ago do they need to be before they become irrelevant?
Oh well, at least we can be reassured that with Fifa in charge we can have absolute trust in them making any decisions for all the right reasons…