Referee Mark Clattenburg admits giving Champions League final penalty for ‘balance’ after offside goal

Clattenburg refereed the Champions League, FA Cup and Euros finals in 2016

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Former Premier League referee Mark Clattenburg has revealed he awarded a penalty to Atletico Madrid in the 2016 Champions League to even up the game after an earlier error for Real Madrid’s opener.

The 46-year-old was one of the highest-profile referees in world football at the time and officiated the Champions League final, FA Cup final and Uefa European Championship final in the same summer, having begun his Premier League career in 2004.

The final saw Real Madrid win their 11th European Cup after beating their local rivals in a penalty shootout, the first of Zinedine Zidane’s three successive victories in the competition as manager of Los Blancos.

Sergio Ramos gave his side the lead early in the first half despite receiving the ball in a marginally offside position, an error he blames on linesman Simon Beck.

“When the ball gets delivered in from the free-kick, I knew there was a touch by Gareth Bale in the middle, which then put Ramos in who scored the goal,” Clattenburg told The Brazilian Shirt Name Podcast. “I spoke to the assistant [Beck] and it was very difficult because of the noise. But I’m screaming down the earpiece saying ‘Do you know there was a touch in the middle?’

“He just froze, and I could see him looking at the big screen. I’m screaming at him, and I restart play, and he’s completely frozen. When you watch it back it’s a difficult decision to make of course, but one that I would expect my assistant to make [and award offside].”

Just after half-time, Clattenburg awarded Atletico a penalty for a foul by Portuguese defender Pepe on former Liverpool striker Fernando Torres.

“I was very fortunate in this final,” he added. “Two or three minutes after half-time I’m presented with a really 50/50 penalty with [Fernando] Torres very clever getting in front of Pepe to draw a foul. Is it a foul? It’s very subjective. it’s one that you wouldn’t want to settle the game on that’s for sure. And I gave it, because it gives a balance back.

“If I don’t award that penalty then what would happen is Atletico would go: ‘We’ve [conceded] an offside goal, and we should have had a penalty. It was one of those perfect scenarios in refereeing. Pepe comes running and says: ‘Mark! That wasn’t a foul!’ We put the ball on the spot, [Antoine] Griezmann hits it and it hits the crossbar.

“I just thought, ‘Wow. This is my day. This is the perfect day in refereeing.’ I’m thinking, ‘Now they can’t blame me.’”

Clattenburg left English football in 2017 to take up the role of Head of Refereeing with the Saudi Arabian Football Association, which had been vacated by Howard Webb, before joining the Chinese Football Association as an official in 2019.