Referee Mark Clattenburg is facing the possibility of both a Football Association and police investigation following accusations of “inappropriate language” towards Chelsea stars John Obi Mikel and Juan Mata.
Clattenburg has been accused by the European champions of making offensive comments, which are understood to have been interpreted as racist, during their acrimonious Premier League defeat to Manchester United.
Chelsea lodged a formal complaint, sparking an almost inevitable chain of events that saw the FA announce an investigation and Professional Game Match Officials committee decide not to appoint Clattenburg to a match this coming weekend.
And last night the Metropolitan Police Service also confirmed that it had received a letter of complaint but it is understood it is not yet clear whether they will act upon it.
The PGMO said in a statement: “We believe that, with any football match, the focus should not be on the officials but on the players and the game itself.
“Mark Clattenburg is one of the elite referees in world football and, in these circumstances, the intense level of scrutiny would detract from the match and be unfair to the clubs and the supporters of both sides.”
An FA probe was almost inevitable the moment Chelsea made their allegation against Clattenburg, who has vowed to co-operate fully with the authorities.
The referees’ union, Prospect, pledged their “full support” to the under-fire official, saying in a statement: “Prospect is committed to helping to eradicate racism in football and in society generally.
“In the context of that commitment, Prospect is offering full support to Mark Clattenburg in relation to the allegations made against him. It is now important that the allegations are fully investigated through the proper process as quickly as possible.”
That process looks set to involve Clattenburg, Mikel and Mata all being interviewed by FA compliance officers, who are likely to speak to other potential witnesses.
Those could include other Chelsea and Manchester United players and will almost certainly see Clattenburg’s assistants and fourth official also asked to provide evidence.
Clattenburg, Michael McDonough, Simon Long and Michael Jones all wore microphones and earpieces during the game, although their conversations were not recorded.
Former Premier League referee Graham Poll said: “A referee’s microphone is on open. Everything he says is heard by two assistants. So if Mark said something, the assistants would have heard it.”
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