Sorry state of affairs after referees’ union shake Buck’s hand

 
(FILES) In a file picture taken on October 28, 2012 Chelsea's Nigerian midfielder John Obi Mikel (R) talks with referee Mark Clattenburg (L) during the English Premier League football match between Chelsea and Manchester United at Stamford Bridge in London. London's Metropolitan Police have confirmed that they have received a complaint about allegedly racist comments made by a top flight referee during last weekend's match between Chelsea and Manchester United. Clattenburg is alleged to have used "inappropriate language", reportedly of a racist nature, towards Chelsea's Nigerian and Spanish players John Mikel Obi and Juan Mata at Stamford Bridge on October 28, 2012. AFP PHOTO/ADRIAN DENNIS RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE. No use with unauthorized audio, video, data, fixture lists, club/league logos or ìliveî services. Online in-match use limited to 45 images, no video emulation. No use in betting, games or single club/league/player publications.ADRIAN DENNIS/AFP/Getty Images
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28 November 2012

So at last, in the 10th year of Roman Abramovich’s ownership of Chelsea, the club have finally coughed up a point of principle — and what a miserable little effort it is.

The notion that they cannot apologise to Mark Clattenburg for the vile and potentially career-ending allegation made against the referee after the home defeat by Manchester United a month ago would be risible were the subject not so grave.

A true retraction, they fear, would be disloyal to Ramires, who thought he had heard the referee call John Obi Mikel a “monkey”, and would cast doubt on the Brazilian’s sincerity. Brilliant, isn’t it? The false accusers of Lord McAlpine must be kicking themselves for missing that trick. Anyone who has followed this tawdry affair will be aware that Ramires’s sincerity is not, never has been and never will be in question. It is his command of the English language upon which the jaundiced eye has alighted.

Nor does anyone, Clattenburg included, object to the player’s expression of distress or Chelsea’s decision to pursue it with the Football Association.

If chairman Bruce Buck and others believed it, they would have been failing in their duty otherwise. What they did wrong — and I apologise for stating the obvious — was to brief the media about the allegation and its racial element before wiser counsels had enjoyed an opportunity to prevail.

This was the act that condemned Clattenburg to torment. True, there was the element of consolation supplied by those — friends and strangers alike — who trusted his version implicitly while pointing out that Chelsea’s record in these matters was starting to make them look little more than self-obsessed enemies of football (to paraphrase the description of Jose Mourinho after he had falsely accused a referee in Barcelona). But what he and the rest of us, anxious only to continue purring over the beautiful football played by Chelsea in the early weeks of the season, needed to hear was “sorry”.

Yesterday’s statement fell short of that and it was shocking that Clattenburg and his fellow referees, who had gathered to meet Buck at St George’s Park the previous day, let the club get away with mumbles of “regret”.

Whatever happened to the sabre their union was rattling not so long ago? The hand that bore it was now stretched out to Buck. And the FA seemed happy with the whole noxious compromise. I suppose what it tells us is that the game and the referees get the treatment they deserve.

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