Michael Oliver
Over the last 10 UEFA Champions League games Michael Oliver has officiated, the average is 4.00 cards a match — in line with the league average of 3.96. That splits 3.9 yellow and 0.1 red a game — a red in 1 of the 10. The away side sees more cards — 2.4 to 1.6 a game, a sharper split than the league's 0.3 gap. 5+ cards landed in 50% of those games (5 of 10), from a 18.4% foul-to-booking rate. These are raw match figures from those games, not odds.
Match cards last 10 games
Career profile
The two numbers that matter are vs league — the multiplier the model applies to a player's booking chance — and conversion, the share of fouls Michael Oliver turns into bookings. Conversion, not the raw foul count, is where a referee's real card tendency lives. Career figures across every UEFA Champions League season on record.
| Measure | Oliver | League avg |
|---|---|---|
| Cards / match | 4.52 | 3.96 |
| vs league | 1.14× | 1.00× |
| Foul-to-card conversion | 19.6% | 18.1% |
| Fouls / match | 23.0 | 21.9 |
| Red cards shown | 3 | — |
| Matches on record | 25 (8 in 25/26) | — |
Recent matches
The last 8 UEFA Champions League games Michael Oliver took charge of — the actual card and foul counts a match-cards line settles on.
| Match | Score | Cards | Y | R | Fouls |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Real Madrid v FC Bayern München7 Apr | 1–2 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 24 |
| Bayer 04 Leverkusen v Olympiacos FC24 Feb | 0–0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 14 |
| Royale Union Saint-Gilloise v Atalanta28 Jan | 1–0 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 21 |
| PSV Eindhoven v Atlético Madrid9 Dec | 2–3 | 7 | 7 | 0 | 26 |
| Olympiacos FC v Real Madrid26 Nov | 3–4 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 19 |
| Galatasaray v Bodø/Glimt22 Oct | 3–1 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 17 |
| FC Barcelona v Paris Saint-Germain1 Oct | 1–2 | 6 | 6 | 0 | 26 |
| AFC Ajax v Inter17 Sep | 0–2 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 32 |
● a red card in that match
Frequently asked
How many cards does Michael Oliver give per game?
Michael Oliver averages 4.52 cards a game across 25 UEFA Champions League matches — 14% above the league average of 3.96. On a Michael Oliver appointment, the model multiplies every player's booking chance by 1.14.
Is Michael Oliver a strict referee?
Slightly, yes. The honest measure is foul-to-card conversion — the share of fouls that become bookings — and Michael Oliver runs at 19.6% against a league average of 18.1%. Foul counts barely vary between officials; the rate at which a foul becomes a booking is where referees genuinely differ.
Does Michael Oliver's record change bet builder card prices?
It should. The referee is the single biggest factor in the to-be-carded market, and the appointment is public before kick-off — so a strict official on a combative player is the archetypal card edge. The player cards guide walks through exactly how the model turns a tendency like this into a price.
How reliable is Michael Oliver's card rate?
It rests on 25 career matches, a solid record. The model shrinks a referee's tendency toward the league average when the sample is thin and discounts its own confidence for officials with young records, so a number like this never gets trusted beyond what the evidence earns.
Rates shown are figures from public match data for context; the model adds shrinkage and an opponent factor, and discounts its confidence for thin referee records, before flagging any card as value. It compares against the bookmaker's price as offered — card markets are priced one side only, so that price still carries the bookmaker's margin. 18+ — please gamble responsibly.