Mark Clattenburg made one rather mind-boggling remark during Liverpool’s win over AC Milan on Tuesday night.
The former Premier League referee was part of Amazon Prime Sport’s coverage of the fixture at the San Siro, during which co-commentator Alan Shearer praised Norwegian official Espen Eskas for not being intimidated by cacophonous jeering from the home crowd at times.
However, in reference to one debatable decision in the second half, the 49-year-old felt that the whistler should’ve taken the febrile atmosphere into consideration in order to get the Rossoneri faithful off his back.
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Clattenburg remarked (via Daily Express): “I think the first one is definitely a free-kick. I just think he needs to calm the crowd down; the crowd are against him.
“They have been putting pressure on him; we saw that with the penalty shout before that. I think the ref just needs to give one or two small fouls to get the judgement back.”
As a hugely experienced official who’s taken charge of European finals at club and international level, we can’t believe Clattenburg was basically urging Eskas to give Milan dubious free kicks just because of hostility from the home crowd.
It’s a referee’s job to be impartial and, difficult as it must be at times, block out any and all external noise in order to make a sound, unbiased judgement on the dozens of split-second decisions which need to be made throughout a football match at an elite level.
By and large, the 36-year-old Norwegian had a good game last night, letting plenty of 50-50 challenges go when others would’ve blown at will and ruined the flow of the match. He also got the biggest call correct in refusing to award the Rossoneri a second-half penalty when they were vehemently screaming for one.
Referees will never earn universal approval over their choices, but all football fans can ask is that they get the major decisions right and contribute to the game by not being overly fussy or uptight towards players. In that regard, Eskas did his job commendably at the San Siro on Tuesday.
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