Mark Clattenburg dispels myths about Nottingham Forest's role in revealing interview

Mark Clattenburg has rejected claims he was a referee analyst for Nottingham Forest, insisting he was an adviser to owner Evangelos Marinakis.

The former Premier League whistleblower, who oversaw the Champions League and Euro finals in 2016, linked at the City Ground in February.

It was reported that the 49 years was brought in to improve understanding and relations with the PGMOL following a series of decisions that went against Forest.

But Clattenburg, who developed a relationship with Marinakis after being head of refereeing in Greece, where Olympiacos plays, has stressed that his role was that of a consultant.

Clatenburg left his role at Forest in May, weeks after the Reds Blow to PGMOL after key decisions missed in their 2-0 defeat to Everton.

Explaining what his role was ForestClattenburg told talkSPORT: “He was not employed as a referee analyst, that was reported by Sky Sports.

“I was an advisor to the board, I was advising on different areas and aspects.

“I've been in football for quite a while, I've seen some things, I understand English culture, the owner of Nottingham Forest is Greek, a lot of people around him are Greek.

“Therefore, sometimes I can give him the understanding of what is expected, so he trusted me, I had a relationship with him because he was the head of refereeing in Greece.

“We had a mutual respect, I left Greece and we still had that mutual respect, and he asked me to understand the refereeing decision that Nottingham Forest received this year, so I couldn't give him any explanation.

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“Because a lot of the decisions were wrong, they affected the club and the points, and when a club is fighting relegation and when you are a referee, you don't really understand the pressure.

“But when you are involved in a club, you realize that the pressure to stay in the Premier League is so great that every decision is scrutinized.”

He was then asked to respond to accusations in Saturday's session with Carlton Cole and Darren Ambrose that he did not know what he was doing at Forest.

To which he commented: “It was difficult, of course. This role is not new around the world, this role was used throughout Europe, it was used in other sports, it was used in rugby in the World Cup.

“So if this brings a certain sporting advantage, why not? In retrospect, could we have explained it better?

“Could Nottingham Forest and I have explained it better, could we have looked at the role and said, 'Look, it's not just a referee analyst, I'm a consultant, I'm analyzing tactics, giving the owner some kind of understanding about football.' English, which is important.

And Clattenburg stressed that he was in no way seeking to influence refereeing decisions in Forest's favour, while referring to the club's scathing social media posts about poor decisions.

He stated: “A lot of people thought I was going to see the referees and I was trying to influence them, that was absolute nonsense because I didn't know them.

“Also, I think they tried to attach the tweet, which was made after the Everton football match, where, in my opinion, the referee made two mistakes, the club felt three, I felt two.

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“I had nothing to do with it, it's something of the highest level, I'm just a consultant, I can only advise on some things.

“And if some things come from above, as happens in all football clubs, that has nothing to do with Mark Clattenburg.”