Gary Neville has called for Mark Clattenburg to resign from his role as Nottingham Forest's referee analyst after the club's remarkable statement following their defeat at Everton.
Forest fell to a 2-0 defeat at Goodison Park on Sunday in a result which saw the hosts move four points clear of Nuno Espirito Santo's side, who stay in 17th. In the immediate aftermath of the defeat, the club released a statement on X slamming referee Anthony Taylor's decision to fail to award them three penalties - all for potential infringements by Ashley Young.
Even more remarkably, the club pointed out their belief that video assistant referee Stuart Attwell is a Luton Town fan, and so should not have been put in a charge of a match which would affect the Hatters' survival chances.
The Forest statement read: "Three extremely poor decisions - three penalties not given - which we simply cannot accept. We warned the PGMOL that the VAR is a Luton fan before the game but they didn’t change him. Our patience has been tested multiple times. NFFC will now consider its options."
Sky Sports pundit Jamie Carragher hit out at Forest's behaviour shortly after the tweet was released, and then Neville joined in after he had been on co-commentary duties for Liverpool's 3-1 win at Fulham.
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Forest were livid with the officiating (Conor Molloy/ProSports/REX/Shutterstock)Responding to the statement, he said: "It's like a mafia gang statement, honestly. What the hell are they playing at?
"I think everyone would have empathy and sympathy with Nottingham Forest this season with some of the decisions that they've had, but they've grabbed defeat from victory in the way they've handled it. It's like a petulant child, it's embarrassing.
"Some of those things that they're saying in there, the suggestion that they are inferring cheating because there is a VAR in Stockley Park who is a Luton fan is a scandal. They will pay for that, and they will regret that as a football club, in terms of their history and how they have presented themselves very well over a long period of time. They will regret that.
Gary Neville has blasted the club's response (Sky Sports)"The last line, this 'explore all options', I was very critical of Liverpool earlier on in the season after the Tottenham game (when Luis Diaz's goal was disallowed). Clubs have got to stop saying that. Sue? Replay the game? Take points back? What are your options?
"Your options are that you can whinge a little bit if you want, you can be upset, but you haven't got any options. This is a sporting situation. Unless we're going to class referees and officials as cheats, which we're not, we never go down that route, they're not. So get rid of that 'explore all options.' Nottingham Forest today have let themselves down badly in the midst of having a couple of bad decisions go against them."
Clattenburg works in a referee analyst role at Forest (PA)Neville then took aim at Clattenburg, who has been in his 'referee analyst' role at Forest since February, and faced the media in his first week in the job when he complained about referee Paul Tierney after Forest's defeat to Liverpool.
"Mark Clattenburg must resign tonight," continued Neville. "He must resign from his job at Nottingham Forest.
"If he sees those words that go out which question integrity, and essentially call a VAR a cheat because he supports a certain club, then he's supporting what's being said and he would basically lose all credibility with referees in the game.
"He should stand down tonight and distance himself from that statement, in my opinion."
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