The referee that Steve Cooper stated had a special agenda against him and Swansea City, the official he accused of making things personal and warned the football league he would influence Swansea matches has struck again.

Despite the glaring issues surrounding Andrew Woolmer and the well documented history of his officiating Swansea City games the governing body still appoint him to swans games in a fourth official capacity. However, that still enables an influence that has once again reared it’s ugly head during the Fulham game on Tuesday night. We did cover his performance during and after that game which saw Ryan Manning sent off for a challenge on Harry Wilson.

However, that’s now been put to bed, Manning has a four game ban, but not content with that Woolmer has been instrumental in reporting Swansea City to the Football League for failing to control their players. Plus technical area breaches by Swansea staff. It’s an odd situation because anyone reviewing the incidents on the touch line, and to even call them that is being a tad over the top. What they will see is Fulham staff barging, screaming, pushing and generally intimidating Woolmer. And have a guess what ? No report, nothing.

Having read the report the league have passed it on to the Football Association who have charged Swansea City for breaching FA Rule E20.1 which is a pretty bad situation for a club to be in. If found guilty the fine can be large.

Let’s quickly have a look at his duties as a fourth official before further speculation on what he can and can’t do to influence a football match. That list of criteria is here, and it’s clear he can have a huge influence on the game and the post match reporting

⚽️ Andrew Woolmer’s guidance for Swansea v Fulham

The crux of his duties.
The fourth official shall assist the Referee in the preparation of a full match report, including details of misconduct, substitutions, and other incidents as required.

The Fourth Official must advise the Referee of any reports being made. The Fourth Official assists the Referee and Assistant Referees at all times. This will involve being pro-active in any dealings with players, substitutes and club officials, especially during the match.

The guidelines confirm it would be Andrew Woolmer who writes the report that reports the swans, and for them to receive the charges reported yesterday.

The crucial areas are the administration of the technical area, an area where he was constantly abused and challenged by Fulham staff but did nothing. An area where he reports Swansea City staff and players for a ‘failure to control’ for lesser infringements, plus not controlling players on the pitch. This report cannot in any way be compiled without the referee, assistants and fourth official corroborating and comparing experiences and written detail after a game.

Once again the official who was accused of a failure to carry out impartial duties by Steve Cooper against Swansea City is again influencing matters from a position of authority. Some say the pen is mightier than the sword, and in this case it seems to have been utilised to create a match report that comes down heavily on Swansea City. This isn’t bias by the way, this is a straight forward observation in agreement with ex Swansea manager Steve Cooper. Andrew Woolmer doesn’t like Swansea City, he has been accused of it in no uncertain terms by Steve Cooper, his integrity and transparency has been challenged and Woolmer took no action against him.

And now we get this report which he is a major part of. You make your mind up, but read those fourth official guidelines before you do and then tell us a fourth official has no bearing on the outcome of a football match that relies on impartiality.

Photographs licensed from Reuters