Mark Clattenburg’s treatment ‘unfair’ during Nottingham Forest spell – Nuno

Nuno Espirito Santo believes Mark Clattenburg was treated “unfairly” by those outside the club during his time at Nottingham Forest.

The former Premier League manager has resigned from his role as referee analyst at the City Ground after just 77 days in the role.

Forest appointed Clattenburg in February in the hope that he could be a line of communication between the club and the Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) – the body responsible for match officials in English football – following a series of controversial VAR decisions that went against them.

But Clattenburg himself admitted — in a statement after his departure — that his appointment had “caused unintended friction between the NFFC and other participants, to the extent that it became more of a hindrance than a help.”

Following the 2-0 defeat to Everton, Forest issued a strongly worded statement, the day after a match in which they felt they should have been awarded three penalties and received none.

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Forest’s reaction – regardless of their frustration, following a series of previous controversies which impacted the games – prompted Sky Sports pundit Gary Neville to call for Clattenburg to resign.

Forest, head coach Nuno and defender Neco Williams were all accused of misconduct following their post-match comments.

“His statement was clear, as a club we did not intend to create a bad atmosphere, but unfortunately it happened,” Nuno said. “Mark made his own decisions based on what was happening – personally I think what happened to him was unfair.”

When asked what was unfair, Nuno replied: “I try to concentrate on him. He had no intention other than to help Forest as a club; to try to understand what no one understood at that time.

“There were bad decisions – and bad decisions made not just by one referee, but by a group of referees. There were bad decisions that went against the laws of the game.

“We needed some expertise to understand why. But this nomination (the nomination of Clattenburg) was not well accepted, not only by the public, the experts, but by everyone in general.”

(Mike Egerton/PA Images via Getty Images)