0 Comments Published by KL Ocs Kid on Tuesday, October 23, 2007 at 10:07 AM.

Mark Clattenburg pays for Mersey mayhem

By Mark Ogden

Last Updated: 1:39am BST 23/10/2007

Mark Clattenburg, the referee at the centre of controversy following his handling of the Merseyside derby between Everton and Liverpool last Saturday, has been removed from the list of referees due to officiate in Premier League matches this weekend as a result of his performance during the Goodison Park fixture.

The Tyne and Wear official dismissed two Everton players, defender Tony Hibbert and captain Phil Neville, failed to dismiss Liverpool's Dirk Kuyt for a kung-fu style challenge on Neville and denied the home side a late penalty following an apparent foul by Jamie Carragher on Everton defender Joleon Lescott.


	Flashpoint: Dirk Kuyt's high-flying tackle on Phil Neville

David Moyes, the Everton manager, also suggested that Clattenburg had been influenced by the Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard when dismissing Hibbert. The official initially appeared to produce a yellow card before issuing a red following comments made by Gerrard in the wake of the foul by Hibbert that led to the first of two successful Liverpool penalties in their 2-1 victory.

The body in charge of refereeing appointments, the Professional Game Match Board, have confirmed that Clattenburg will not be considered for a Premier League fixture this weekend and Everton captain Neville, dismissed by Clattenburg for deliberate handball, has fanned the flames by claiming that some referees are "awestruck" by leading players and clubs.

"I have been on the other side of things and you can see that some referees are awestruck when they deal with certain players and certain clubs, but it's never going to change. It's been happening for 20 or 30 years and, unfortunately, we just have to get on with it," Neville said.

"Games of that magnitude are defined by the smallest percentages and they never went for us on Saturday. It's a bitter pill to swallow."

Kuyt's second-half challenge on Neville was of the two-footed kind that the game's law-makers have long attempted to eradicate and the Everton captain admits he was baffled by Clattenburg's decision not to show a red card.

"To be fair to Dirk Kuyt, he has said it was a bad tackle and he is not a malicious player, but the bottom line is that he should have been sent off," Neville added.

"We've had instances where players have been booked for the most trivial of incidents, but when you see a tackle like that receive the same punishment, that's when, as players, you get upset. We just want referees to be consistent."

Labels: everton vs liverpool