We couldn’t quite believe it yesterday when Mark Clattenburg, a referee in the Premier League between 2004 and 2017, made a throwaway line in his column for the Daily Mail that officials favoured Manchester United back in the day because of Sir Alex Ferguson.
He even says that the penalties he gave Liverpool at Old Trafford when David Moyes was in charge wouldn’t have been given if his predecessor was still in the dugout.
“He does not like losing, he never has. He gets prickly,” Clattenburg initially said of Jurgen Klopp. “But he is wrong to suggest there is an aura around United that sees them given favourable decisions. There used to be when Fergie was there, but that has eased massively since he left.
“I am the only referee to give three penalties to the opposition at Old Trafford, and that was for Liverpool, of all teams, in 2014.
“But David Moyes was manager — I’m not sure that would have happened when Fergie was there!”
Shaka Hislop on ESPN has rightly reacted to these comments and thinks they’re worrying.
We remember Rafa Benitez went on a campaign to point out the bias in United’s favour and was vilified for it. But it turns out he was spot on.
The former keeper has described Clattenburg’s comments as ‘astonishing’ and you can hear his passionate thoughts in the video below.