Gary Neville has criticised Nottingham Forest and insisted fans will be ’embarrassed’ after the club decided to create a new referee analyst position that Mark Clattenburg has filled.
Forest have fumed at certain officiating decisions this season, with Ivan Toney’s previous goal in Brentford’s 3-2 win over them midway through January one such occasion.
There was also a controversial red card for Joe Worrall against Manchester United amongst other examples of when Forest feel they have been unfairly treated by the PGMOL.
The club – owned by Greek business mogul Evangelos Marinakis – took a big step away from the relegation zone with a weekend win over West Ham and are trying to find innovative ways to gain an advantage over other teams.
Clattenburg’s new position at the City Ground tasks him with helping the club with pre-match preparation on officials that will be covering their next game, assist in understanding of how and why certain decisions are made and also attempt to improve the club’s relationship with the refereeing body.
However, Neville – who has also criticised the state of refereeing in the English top-flight this season – has criticised the club’s move and admitted he is ‘dissappointed’ by the recruitment of former Premier League ref, Clattenburg.
Speaking on his Sky Sports podcast series , Neville fumed: ‘You’re being employed to go and tell a football club how referees are making mistakes or what mistakes they’re making. A fan in the crowd could go and tell you what a referee is thinking. ‘I’m disappointed with Nottingham Forest. It’s as if, ‘Look at all of this, woe me’.
I get it, some teams feel as though they’ve been hard done to, some teams feel they’ve had bad decisions against them. That happens sometimes during a season and I would’ve hated it. But to employ an ex-referee to tell you why you’re having decisions against you. For me, I think it’s a step too far,’ he continued.
‘This is not an attack on Nottingham Forest fans because some of them will probably think it’s embarrassing. ‘They won’t like the decisions against them, but I’m sure they won’t sit there and think that’s a really good move by the club,’ added Neville.
Clattenburg has previously advised the Greece Football Federation on refereeing in the Greek Super League and there is hope that his new position at the Premier League club will help clarify controversial decisions that go against them.
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