Clattenburg recognises his 2016 final mistakes: It would have been different with VAR

Mark Clattenburg made a lot of headlines for his refereeing of the 2016 Champions League final, which saw Real Madrid edge Atletico Madrid for the second time in European football's biggest game.

Los Blancos went ahead through a goal that shouldn't have stood due to an offside, and the official was aware of that at the time. To make up for his team's mistake, Clattenburg awarded Los Colchoneros a questionable penalty later on, only for Antoine Griezmann to miss it.

"When the ball gets delivered, I knew there was a touch by Gareth Bale in the middle," Clattenburg said to the Brazilian Shirt Name podcast. "That then went to [Sergio] Ramos who scored.

"I said to my assistant, but it was very difficult with the noise: 'Did you know there was a touch in the middle? You know there's a touch?' But he just froze. I could see him looking at the big screen. He completely froze, so about a minute later I restarted the game because I had to."

Clattenburg went on to say that his assistant claimed that the communication earpiece and microphone wasn't working after the goal had gone in, but the referee knew that a mistake had been made under pressure.

"I was very fortunate that two or three minutes after half time, I'm presented with a 50-50 penalty. [Fernando] Torres was really clever getting in front of Pepe to draw a foul.

"It's one you wouldn't want to settle a game on. I gave it to give back the balance. It was one of those perfect scenarios in refereeing and I gave the penalty."

Adblock test (Why?)