Mark Clattenburg has accused former Chelsea star John Obi Mikel of trying to punch him amid his row with the club in 2012.
The former Premier League referee, now 50, recounts how Mikel stormed into his dressing room at Stamford Bridge following a tense match between Chelsea and Manchester United in October 2012, where Clattenburg was accused of a racial slur.
Chelsea claimed that Clattenburg called Mikel a ‘monkey’ during the match, but the FA cleared him of the accusation. Meanwhile, the midfielder was banned and fined £60,000 for threatening Clattenburg.
Terry faced a ban, a £220,000 fine, and lost the England captaincy after being found guilty by the FA of racially abusing Ferdinand, though he was acquitted by Westminster Magistrates’ Court.
Clattenburg shared on Under The Cosh: ‘There was a bit of chaos outside the dressing room door after the Chelsea vs Man United game. I opened the door wondering, “what the heck is happening here?”
Mark Clattenburg has accused John Obi Mikel of trying to punch him after a match in 2012
Chelsea accused Clattenburg of calling Mikel a ‘monkey’ but he was cleared after a probe
He suggests Chelsea were seeking ‘revenge’ because John Terry had been deemed guilty by the FA of racially abusing Anton Ferdinand the previous year.
‘When I opened the door, John Obi Mikel charged in and started throwing punches. I ducked. He attempted to pin me against the wall, shouting: “Bloody hell!”
‘I didn’t know what had gone on, I thought somebody had maybe accused me at that point!
‘Everyone just went white, like, “f****** h***, what has happened there?”
‘The funny thing was, about 30 seconds later, there was a knock on my door. I thought, “not again, Obi Mikel is coming through the door.”
‘I opened it and it was one of the security guys and he went, “Obi Mikel has left his flip-flop in the dressing room, can he have it back?”
‘I went, “are you taking the f****** p***?’
Clattenburg has described the mental torment and paranoia of being accused of the slur for which he was cleared.
‘That John Obi Mikel situation, I didn’t want to come back. I wanted to finish refereeing after that. It was an absolute disgrace what happened,’ he said.
Clattenburg says he wanted to quit refereeing as the investigation into him carried on
He claims Mikel took swings at him after bursting into the changing room but failed to hit
Terry stood trial in 2012 after being accused of racially abusing Ferdinand but was eventually cleared. However, the FA still found him guilty and banned and fined him
Terry has always denied the allegations and he was cleared in court after being charged
The relationship between Terry (left) and Anton’s brother Rio (right) turned sour after the alleged racial abuse incident
‘I had a family, a child, a mortgage. If I had left, what could I do? I didn’t have anywhere to go.
‘I was accused of being a racist. I was supposed to have called him a monkey after the Chelsea vs Man United match.
‘It took around a month of investigating by the FA. For the first few days I couldn’t eat or drink. You go through questioning yourself – have I done it?
‘How could I referee? I was in bits. I was mentally gone. We threatened to strike because we felt the behaviour of the football club was wrong.
‘To leave us out high and dry and with the media outside my house ever day of the week, being accused of something I hadn’t done was tough.
‘That moment of attempted assault – he never laid a hand on me but swung at me a couple of times – I don’t know if they’re thinking, “f***, we’re in trouble here, he’s trying to report.”
‘All the match observer was talking about was, what I was going to report. Nothing about racism, all it was about was, what I was going to report. What happened in the dressing room with Obi Mikel. And an hour later I was accused of being a racist.
‘I know the game was volatile and a lot was going on. I don’t know if he was just upset with the result and lost it. Had he been drug tested? Players didn’t like being drug tested. So maybe he couldn’t go the toilet. All these little things upset people. I thought he was just upset and I’d got in the line of attack.
‘He shouldn’t even have got near the dressing room with the security. Where did the security go?
‘He got banned three matches a lot later after my investigation went on.
‘I think it was a payback for John Terry and Anton Ferdinand at QPR vs Chelsea., where Terry was accused of saying some words to Anton.’
