Mark Clattenburg sparks ‘outrageous’ fury in new role after Nottingham Forest exit

Mark Clattenburg was the source of further fury on Tuesday night – this time among Liverpool fans – for a comment he made in his latest role since leaving Nottingham Forest.

   With several key decisions against Forest in last season’s relegation battle, the former Premier League official was brought in in February to help understand why.    Three months later, he left the position of referee analyst and ended a controversial three-month collaboration with the club.

   Supporters will have vivid memories of April’s defeat to Everton at Goodison Park, after which a club statement expressed its fury with three penalties turned down and comments about Stuart Attwell’s VAR.    Gary Neville urged Clattenburg to distance himself from such a statement but instead doubled down by criticizing the “howlers’ hat-trick” which led to Forest’s defeat.

   Eventually, the pundit got his wish, with Clattenburg admitting that his tenure at the City Ground only served to increase friction with other stakeholders rather than reduce it.    Neville also had to return after Sky Sports apologized for his comments.

   Clattenburg, 49, has now found a new job in his post-Forest days, similar to that taken by a number of former referees in recent seasons.    Last night, his name came up among pundits analyzing Amazon Prime’s coverage of the UEFA Champions League.

   More specifically, he was in charge of commentating on Liverpool’s visit to AC Milan.    Arne Slott’s side bounced back from Forest’s hammering at Anfield on Saturday to beat their Italian opponents at the San Siro, albeit only after going down.

   As the match wore on and the six-time competition winners took greater control of the proceedings, the Milan support gave Norwegian referee Espan Eskas a chorus of two special cheers in what was clearly seen as favoring the visitors.

   As these frustrations grew, Clattenburgs explained what his advice would be to the match referee.    “I think he needs to appease the audience, the audience is against him. I think he just needs to do one or two minor offenses to get the verdict back,” he said.

   In response, Liverpool fans on X, the former Twitter, were stunned that the man who took charge of the 2016 Champions League final suggested something like this:

   @Maxi_1892: “Clattenburg tells the ref to award minor fouls to Milan to appease the crowd, what an outrageous thing.”

   @LFCData: “Yeah, I’ve heard that too… The referee shouldn’t be concerned with the emotions of the crowd.”