Mark Clattenburg has accused former Chelsea star John Obi Mikel of trying to punch him amid his row with the club in 2012.
The ex-Premier League referee, 50, says Mikel burst into his dressing room at Stamford Bridge after a heated match between Chelsea and Manchester United in October 2012, during which he was accused of a racial slur.
Chelsea alleged that Clattenburg had called Mikel a ‘monkey’ during the match but he was subsequently cleared by the FA, while the midfielder was later banned and fined £60,000 for threatening the official.
Now Clattenburg has speculated that Chelsea were just trying to get ‘payback’ after their captain John Terry was banned for an incident involving QPR star Anton Ferdinand in a game the year before.
Terry was banned, fined £220,000, and stripped of the England captaincy as the FA found he had racially abused Ferdinand – but he was separately cleared by Westminster Magistrates’ Court.
Clattenburg told Under The Cosh: ‘There was a bit of commotion outside the dressing room door [after the Chelsea vs Man United game]. I opened the door thinking, “what the f****** h*** is going on 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 claims Chelsea were just trying to get ‘payback’ for the John Terry being found guilty by the FA of racially abusing Anton Ferdinand the year before
‘As I opened the door, John Obi Mikel came bursting through and started swinging punches. I ducked. He tried to pin me against the wall and went: “F****** h***!”
‘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.’