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Richard Keys has questioned the appointment of referee Chris Kavanagh for this weekend’s top-of-the-table Premier League clash between Manchester City and Liverpool. Kavanagh will be the man in the middle at the Etihad Stadium on Saturday for one of the biggest matches in the English football calendar.
The 38-year-old has been chosen to officiate the game despite being born in Ashton-under-Lyne, which is just five miles away from the Etihad Stadium. Keys took to social media on Tuesday to question Kavanagh’s appointment, which he believes could spark extra controversy if any high-profile errors are made during the match.
Keys wrote on X, formerly Twitter: “Why do the PGMOL do it? Not for a moment do I think Chris Kavanagh will be anything other than professional at City but what if? What if something goes wrong? And in a season like this who’d bet against it? Why put him under the added pressure? Are there no other refs?”
The PGMOL has strict rules preventing officials from being involved in matches including their own team or their local rivals. It is not publicly known which team Kavanagh supports, unlike many other top-level referees in the Premier League.
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Andre Marriner supports Aston Villa and was banned from officiating them as well as Birmingham City before retiring at the end of last season. Michael Oliver, meanwhile, is a Newcastle fan and is not allowed to referee the Magpies or Sunderland as a result of his club allegiance.
Speaking to the Daily Mail in 2021, Oliver explained: “I never referee Newcastle games. 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.
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“Because Newcastle are invariably involved in a relegation battle, when you get to March or April, it means I can’t referee anyone around them towards the bottom three. If Newcastle needed a point to survive and the team they were fighting to get above was say Villa, I couldn’t referee Villa’s game either. I wouldn’t want to, it’s not worth the hassle.”
Kavanagh will certainly be hoping to steer clear of any post-match controversy when City face Liverpool at the Etihad Stadium this weekend. The Reds have a good record when Kavanagh has been in the middle with 13 wins from 15 matches, while he has also overseen five City victories from eight games over the course of his career.
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