Winter: Clattenburg’s career on the line

Former Premier League referee Jeff Winter believes Mark Clattenburg’s career would be over if he is found guilty of racially abusing Chelsea’s John Obi Mikel and Juan Mata during yesterday’s game at Stamford Bridge.

The west London club lodged an official complaint over the alleged use of ‘inappropriate language’ used by Clattenburg that was directed at two of their players, whilst the Daily Mail have reported that Clattenburg has been accused of making a racial slur towards Mikel and called Mata a ‘Spanish t**t’.

It was reported that Mikel went to the referee’s dressing room to demand an apology following the match, with chief executive Ron Gourlay and manager Roberto Di Matteo.

Winter says that his position will be untenable if he’s found guilty of the offence:

“If a match official has used racial insults or language to a player then he’s for the high jump. He won’t be getting a four-match or an eight-match ban, it’ll probably be the end of his career, but that is if indeed he did say anything.”

“I feel it very unlikely that Mark Clattenburg would be allowed to referee until it’s dealt with so we certainly don’t want this going on for weeks and months.”

However, I feel like this one is set to run and run much like the case between John Terry and Anton Ferdinand. The television pictures will be scrutinised and reports suggest that a number of players heard the alleged comments, whilst the other officials Michael McDonough, Simon Long and Michael Jones could be crucial as they were all wearing microphones during the game.

If the allegations are true then Clattenburg is never going to officiate a game ever again and rightly so, but if it is true, where does it leave the game?