Nottingham Forest’s Main man expected to be ‘banned’

Everton’s former chief Keith Wyness believes Mark Clattenburg could be banned and fined after he called Stuart Attwell a Luton Town fan.

Speaking on the new edition of Football Insider’s Inside Track podcast, the 66-year-old – who served as CEO at Goodison Park between 2004 and 2009 and now runs a football consultancy advising elite clubs – claimed that the authorities will come down hard on Clattenburg.

The former Premier League referee is now working as a consultant at Nottingham Forest, and accused VAR Attwell of supporting the Hatters after a series of Forest penalty appeals against Everton were turned down.

The Toffees defeated Forest 2-0 on Sunday (21 April), with the latter taking to Twitter after the match to share their anger at the lack of decisions at Goodison Park.

Wyness reveals Clattenburg punishment at Nottingham Forest

As reported by Sky Sports (22 April), Clattenburg doubled down on calling Attwell a Luton fan, with pundit Gary Neville urging the consultant to step down from his role at Forest.

Wyness believes the former referee could be in big trouble after his actions, reminding clubs of their responsibility to handle themselves in a proper manner.

“I suppose a lot will depend from the FA’s point of view and the Premier League’s point of view as to whether Clattenburg can be classified as an employee of the club,” he told the Inside Track podcast.

“Certainly I think he would be as a consultant. That would have to be determined. But if he is considered to be that, then he would come under the remit.

“Bringing the game into disrepute, those sorts of things are the areas that will come out of it. He could have a ban as I did from football for a few weeks, it could be another monetary fine as well.

“I think the way this has happened, they are going to come down hard. The authorities will try and come down hard on this because it is an area that is very difficult to police, it’s very hard to do.

“I know that in the past I have called up the FA on one occasion, and tried to intervene about a red card, I was told to get off the phone.

“I understand it, but when you go public and you make those sorts of issues known, and you start threatening, then it is a problem for the whole game.

“And it has got to be nipped in the bud now, rather than stamped out. Clubs have got to realise they’ve got a bigger responsibility in the way that they handle themselves going forward.”