The manager of Manchester United, Sir Alex Ferguson, has defended the referee Mark Clattenburg who was accused by the Chelsea management of racially abusing the Nigerian midfielder John Obi Mikel. Chelsea was defeated by Manchester United in a premier League match played last Sunday. Chelsea lost that match by a narrow margin of 3-2. After that match, the authorities of Chelsea lodged complaint against Clattenburg saying that the English referee racially abused one of its players. But, Ferguson has dismissed the allegations made by Chelsea.
In Saturday’s match, Clattenburg showed red card to Branislav Ivanovic in the 63rd minute of the match and then, showed second yellow card to Fernando Torres in the 68th minute which reduced Chelsea to nine players. Then again, in the 75th minute, Clattenburg allowed the goal scored by Javier Hernandez though it seemed that Hernandez was in an offside position while scoring the goal. The Chelsea manager, Roberto Mancini, got pissed off due to that.
Ferguson was talking to the reporters ahead of the Premier League match against Arsenal. When asked about that complaint lodged by Chelsea, Ferguson said, “I don’t think Clattenburg would have used the wrong language for Mikel. These things are very unlikely to happen in modern day football. 25 years ago, such things used to happen, but, not these days. In the last 10 years, not even a single player came to me and said that the referee passed on racial comments against him. For me, it’s very hard to believe that Clattenburg would have said anything like that.”
“Mark Clattenburg is not a new referee. He has been a FIFA referee since the last 6 years and one of the best in the business at the moment. I would be surprised if he is found guilty.”
