Gary Neville revealed the moment Roy Keane refused to shake hands with former referee Mark Clattenburg.
The pair had a frosty meeting during the 2022 Qatar World Cup with ex-Manchester United defender Neville and Arsenal legend Ian Wright left to watch on. Clattenburg has been a prominent figure in headlines in recent days after Nottingham Forest, for whom he is a referee analyst, released a statement questioning the integrity of Stuart Attwell taking on the role of VAR for their game against Everton.
The ex-Premier League official doubled down on Forest's stance in a newspaper column and has since been a target of criticism from the likes of Neville. It appears, however, that Keane's stance was set in stone long before recent events.
The forthright pundit had taken offence to something Clattenburg had previously written. Keane was not prepared to let it go and took his hand away from the ex-official.
"He's your mate Clattenburg! You were all over him at the World Cup," said Keane to Neville on the Stick to Football podcast.
Neville left with egg on face as Arsenal "depressed ambition" comments resurface
Neville was quick to reply: "He's opened up a can of worms now! So basically, we're walking along this place in the World Cup, the three of us were having a chat and Mark Clattenburg walks towards us'"
"But he was strutting, wasn't he?" interrupted Keane to spark laughter from his colleagues. Neville continued: "Right, he's worked with us at the previous World Cups as our refereeing consultant, we trained with him and got to know him a bit. So basically, we're walking along and I'm like 'Hi Mark, how are you?' and then Wrighty goes 'Mark, good to see you!' and then he [Keane] hangs back a few yards.
Gary Neville and Ian Wright re-enacted Roy Keane's refusal to shake hands with Mark Clattenburg (The Overlap)"And then he goes over to Roy to shake his hand and Roy goes [makes aggressive handshake motion]. No word of a lie!"
Keane admitted his action when Jill Scott asked for confirmation before Neville continued. The Salford City owner said: "He threw his hand away! And I'm like, 'What's going on here?! I know he's a bit feisty but...'. You [Keane] carried on walking and we were left talking to him and I said, 'Ref, is there a problem?'.
Keane explained his hostility: "He'd said something in a book after he worked with us."
Wright then contributed as he revealed Keane appeared less certain when they caught up to him. "When we did finally catch him up, we said: 'What happened there?' and he said: 'I don't know. I think I remember him saying something'.
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