Mark Clattenburg was supposed to prepare the players of Premier League club Nottingham Forest for the peculiarities of different referees and explain controversial decisions to the club owner. At the end of April, this project escalated.
Mark Clattenburg has refereed almost 300 Premier League games – today he works as a referee consultant.
Imago
The football referee Mark Clattenburg has always been polarizing. During his playing days, the 49-year-old Englishman was one of the best referees in the world. He led almost 300 games in the Premier League and refereed the finals of the Champions League and the European Championship within just a few weeks in 2016; in the same year he was elected world referee.
After Clattenburg’s unexpected resignation midway through the season in winter 2017, he took over the financially lucrative position of head referee in Saudi Arabia. He then worked in similar roles in China, Greece and Egypt before struggling Premier League club Nottingham Forest appointed him as referee advisor last February.
Clattenburg’s commitment was a reaction to several controversial interpretations of the rules by the referees, which the club felt disadvantaged by. In a YouTube conversation with reporter Jamie Martin, Clattenburg outlined his new field of work at the beginning of the job. First and foremost, he wanted to help club owner Evangelos Marinakis, who he knows well, to understand the reasons for these decisions.
It is also his job to prepare the professional team with documents for the referee teams and to improve the club’s relations with the English referee organization PGMOL. Because it’s about “that one small percent” that could perhaps bring in three points and thus a better league position.
Clattenburg’s commitment causes upheaval
But after two and a half months, the collaboration between Clattenburg’s company Referee Consultant and Nottingham Forest has ended again. Not because Clattenburg had already found the desired one percent, but because, as Clattenburg admitted, unwanted tensions had arisen between Nottingham Forest and other parties involved.
Clattenburg said the tensions that had arisen had been “more of a hindrance than a help” for the club. They also led to him being “undeservedly targeted by participants and experts”.
The withdrawal suggested that the club wanted to concentrate on what was happening on the field again after the many sideshows in the final phase of the season. And this didn’t seem to be a bad idea: After winning against bottom-placed Sheffield United the previous week, Nottingham virtually secured their place in the league before the final round last weekend despite a defeat against Chelsea FC. And that despite Forest having been deducted four points for financial violations. The lead over the first relegation place, which newly promoted Luton Town holds, is three points – plus a goal difference that is twelve goals better.
Proceedings against the Nottingham coach and a player
The situation around Clattenburg escalated at the end of April when Nottingham complained about three missed penalties after a defeat at Everton FC and indirectly questioned the integrity of Video Assistant Referee (VAR) Stuart Attwell. “We warned the PGMOL before the game that the VAR was a fan of Luton Town (relegation rivals, ed.), but they didn’t replace him,” the club wrote on X.
The post has been viewed more than 45 million times. Marinakis recently said on the BBC that “referee decisions cost us points” and he expected these mistakes to be corrected. During one of the penalty scenes, referee chief Howard Webb was insightful and said he would have preferred VAR intervention.
The Premier League noted the comments from Nottingham “with great disappointment” and immediately and vehemently rejected the allegations. Improperly questioning the integrity of match officials is “never appropriate,” the league ruled. She announced an investigation into the events. And the English FA accused both the club and its coach Nuno Espírito Santo and player Neco Williams of “inappropriate behavior”.
Three extremely poor decisions – three penalties not given – which we simply cannot accept.
We warned the PGMOL that the VAR is a Luton fan before the game but they didn’t change him. Our patience has been tested multiple times.
NFFC will now consider its options.
— Nottingham Forest (@NFFC) April 21, 2024
Clattenburg is also “formally warned”
In the past, Clattenburg had also spoken anything but highly of the referees’ association PGMOL and its chairman Webb. In the upheaval surrounding Attwell’s use of VAR, he seemed like a partisan mediator and was “formally warned” for his comments after the game. In his column in the tabloid “Daily Mail”, which bordered on lobbying, Clattenburg had shown understanding for Nottingham Forest’s actions by emphasizing that as head of the referee he “certainly would not have risked” Attwell’s VAR appointment.
Clattenburg’s role was condemned by Sky expert and former England international Gary Neville: He called on him to distance himself from the club’s serious allegations against Attwell and to resign from his advisory position. Nottingham Forest’s statement criticized Neville as a “mafia gang-like statement”. The club is said to have taken legal action against Sky, as was unsurprisingly reported in the Daily Mail.
The reputation of the club, the PGMOL and Clattenburg seemed to suffer as a result of this matter, as did the already damaged authority of the referees. Nevertheless, Clattenburg is “sincerely convinced” that referee advisors continue to have their value in modern football. He is now only working as a referee again – on the English TV retro game show “Gladiators”.