By Akinwale Kasali
Its close to Eight years since Chelsea Football Club, and Manchester United Football Club both of England, traded tackles in the Barclays English Premier League. It was on October 28th, 2012.
The Red Devils surprisingly defeated the Stamford Bridge occupants, winning 3-2. The Chelsea duo of Branislav Ivanovic and Fernando Torres, were sent off the field by Mark Clattenburg the center referee. But the memories of that fierce match still remains green in the memory of Clattenburg.
That match could have been the end of the illustrious referring career of Clattenburg. But he went on to officiate the 2014 FIFA World Cup Finals, 2016 UEFA Champions League Final and 2016 European Nations Championship.
That end would have come because of an allegation of racism levelled against him by former Super Eagles Captain and former Chelsea Midfielder.
Chelsea had lodged an official complaint at the FA after Mikel accused Clattenburg of making a racist comment during that match.
He received series of threats from the Chelsea fans, and supporters of Mikel and Africans, who stood in support of Mikel over the racist allegation levelled on Clattenburg.
It, however, took the intervention of the English Football Association that did a thorough investigation to unravel the truth and ascertain whether there were racial abuse or comments made by the center referee on Mikel.
This development helped Clattenburg develop a thick skin, but he still came close to quitting following the fallout from Chelsea‘s clash with Manchester United in 2012.
Clattenburg became one of the most high-profile referees in the game once he began officiating in the Premier League in 2004, enjoying a 13-year career despite a number of controversial moments.
Mikel was, however, found out to have concocted those allegations and Clattenburg was eventually cleared of any wrongdoing.
Mikel was given a three-match ban and fined £60,000 for using “threatening and/or abusive and/or insulting words and/or behaviour”.
Clattenburg says looking back on the incidents in the Chelsea v Manchester United game of 2012 and its aftermath, he almost quit, but he was not in a position to do that.
“I have a family, they need to be looked after. I had left my profession as an electrical engineer behind, and there was nowhere to go if I walked away from refereeing.
“This is a unique job in many ways and not always for the right reason. If you are a player or a manager or even a journalist, you can always get a job somewhere else if something goes wrong, but you can’t do that in refereeing.
“If I had quit in 2012 amid that storm around the Chelsea v United game, where would I have gone? In refereeing, you are stuck in an industry you can’t get out of and that is a difficult place to be in.
“Who is going to employ me in a job outside football given my profile and the like? That is why I had to take the offer to move to Saudi Arabia when it came my way, as it offered me security to my family.
“One day the whole truth will come out on what happened in that Chelsea v United game and people will be surprised by that story. It was not a football incident. What I went through that day was not right and it made me realise that football is not just a sport any more.
Clattenburg had even received death threats at times in his career, and he admitted his job could have a knock-on effect on his family.
“I’ve had death threats, my family has been threatened and it is not nice. People say what they are going to do to you, that they know where you live.
“The odds of them carrying out these threats are low, but your children can still read it and that is not nice. When it affects your family, it is a horrible situation and I wouldn’t wish that on anyone.
“I have picked Mikel because of the incident during a Chelsea v Manchester United match in 2012 when he accused me of making a racist comment, which was not right and I was later cleared by the FA.
Clattenburg says he can never forgive Mikel because he almost ruined his career, stressing that even after the whole issue, when it was clear that Mikel lied, he couldn’t apologised.
“He has never apologised and that is disappointing because it could have ruined my life. I fell out of love with refereeing for a while after that but couldn’t quit because I had a family to support and no other career to pursue.
“It all left a bad feeling that still lingers today.
“Mikel only heard the allegation from his team-mate, Ramires, who did not speak English. Other Chelsea players have since apologised but nothing from Mikel.
“He had the chance to say sorry and speak to me about it during a Nigeria friendly in the United States before the World Cup in 2014, and I would have welcomed that, but nothing, sadly.”
