This is one of the oddest football stories that we’ve seen in a while…
JOE imagines that one of the professions which requires an incredible amount of R&R is a Premier League referee.
The men in the middle have to endure constant abuse, incredible pressure and unbelievable scrutiny, this is just from an Irish Sunday league 11-a-side fixture alone.
Poor Mark Clattenburg though because he has just been banned from officiating in any Premier League games this weekend after going to an Ed Sheeran concert fow which he fell foul of an odd FA protocol.
It’s not that the FA are party-poopers or dislike the ginger crooners tunes but apparently Clattenburg broke the rules by travelling to The Hawthorns for Saturday’s match between West Brom and Crystal Palace on his own.
The rules state that a referee must arrive and leave the stadium with his team of officials but Clattenburg travelled on his Jack Jones because he wanted to make a quick getaway to Newcastle shortly after the match in order to see Ed Sheeran later that evening.
A ‘Little Bird’ tells us that FA officials broke the news to Clattenburg by saying ‘You Need Me, I Don’t Need You’. We’re sure that this is just a ‘Small Bump’ in the referee’s very good reputation and that if he could then he would definitely ‘Take It Back’.
We’ll stop now.
