It’s termed as the richest game in football and Chris Kavanagh will be the man charged with keeping order at Wembley on Saturday as the Swans face Brentford with the prize for the winners being a place in the Premier League.
With 22 Premier League games under his belt this season (62 yellow cards and 2 red cards) it will be his second Swansea v Brentford play-off fixture having taken charge of the second leg of last season’s semi-final, a game that Brentford won 3-1.
The Manchester-born referee started officiating in 1998 as a 13-year-old, plying his trade in local football, before being promoted to take charge of matches in the National League in 2012.
Kavanagh refereed in the Football League regularly from the 2014/15 season and in 2016/17 he was the man in the middle on 27 occasions for the EFL Championship campaign.
Prior to his promotion to Select Group 1 status, Kavanagh made his Premier League debut in April 2017 as West Bromwich Albion lost to Southampton 1-0 at The Hawthorns, while he has been fourth official in the top flight on a number of occasions.
Kavanagh was also the fourth official for the League One Play-off Final between Scunthorpe United and Millwall at Wembley at the end of the 2016/17 season.
Kavanagh will be assisted by a Swans favourite Sian Massey-Ellis and Dan Cook. David Coote is the fourth official and Neil Davies the reserve assistant referee.
