Referee's nightmares

It is far from easy being a referee in any sport. Especially in ones followed by billions of people and in which a lot of fans consider themselves knowledgeable of the game.

In his prime, Mark Clattenburg was one of the best referees in Europe. He has officiated the world's greatest players and taken charge of the biggest matches, including finals of the European Championship, Champions League and FA Cup.

But while there have been plenty of successes, there have also been challenges and a number of players proved tough to handle on the pitch for Clattenburg and his colleagues.

Sportsmail's reported a list of the worst footballers Clattenburg faced in his career.

John Obi Mikel

To start off with one of the African greats. Even though Mikel wasn't that hard to handle on the pitch, Clattenburg remembers a situation that left him in bitter relations with the former Nigerian midfielder.

"I have picked Mikel because of the incident during a Chelsea v Manchester United match in 2012 when he accused me of making a racist comment, which was not right and I was later cleared by the FA.

He has never apologised and that is disappointing because it could have ruined my life. I fell out of love with refereeing for a while after that but couldn't quit because I had a family to support and no other career to pursue."

©Shaun Botterill/Gallo Images

Craig Bellamy

According to Clattenburg, Welshman was the worst player to officiate.

"I knew my relationship with him was on sticky ground when he squeezed my balls in the tunnel at the Etihad, and I don't mean my match-balls! It was a joke — I think — and I took in that spirit, but there was a bit of history.

Why? It probably goes back to December 2009 when Manchester City were at Bolton and I sent him off.

I had booked him for dissent — I could have shown a red, the language was that bad — and I then gave him a second yellow for diving, although replays showed it was a penalty. I was wrong. He went mental, as you can imagine.

But Bellamy's reputation went against him with a lot of referees and I think he did lose the benefit of the doubt. I had said to one of City's coaching staff at half-time in that game: 'How do you put up with him every week?'

They reported me for that, which was disappointing. What is said within a game should stay there. If I reported everything they said then they would be banned from the dugout every other week.

But Bellamy was a nightmare to referee and most of us felt the same. He would snarl at you and throw his arms around, constantly challenging you. His language was awful, just plain rude.

As a referee, it is difficult when you have a problem player like that because you are drawn to him and it's a distraction.

Because I'm a Newcastle fan, I had the luxury of never refereeing him when I started. I just wish he had stayed at Newcastle for a bit longer!

©AI Project/Gallo Images

Roy Keane

Known as a tough character all across the footballing world, the name of Roy Keane came as no surprise.

"I have to start by saying that I worked with Roy for ITV during the World Cup in 2018 and he was a gentleman and nice to be around, proof that players can be very different off the pitch from on it.

Because when he played he was hard to manage. Remember the incident with Andy D'Urso when he screamed in his face, that attempt to bully the referee is what he was like.

I do think that came from Sir Alex Ferguson as well though. It was never about influencing the decision that had gone with Manchester United, it was always about applying more pressure ahead of the next one.

What if VAR was one of us?

You just couldn't trust Roy either. You never knew if he was going to blow up or do something nasty, like the tackle on Alf-Inge Haaland. That was a disgrace, it was pre-meditated.

He always came across as stone-cold and wanted to be the hard man. That causes problems for referees because the ego kicks in and it becomes a fight, like it did between him and Patrick Vieira.

I once made a joke on a podcast that I was intimidated by Roy and it made headlines, but I wasn't. He was just a challenge to referee — although he is great company over dinner!

©Ben Radford/Gallo Images

Jens Lehmann

A goalkeeper amongst those hard to manage. Former Arsenal keeper.

He was just so irritable and never stopped, one of those miserable blokes who would whinge about everything and everyone.

If the ball was round, he would whinge. If the ball was white, he would whinge. You would think, 'Just give it a rest'.

He was a great goalkeeper but I honestly think this was a weakness in him and other teams identified that. They would stand on his toes at corners and he would react by pushing them.

I knew players were provoking him but he was probably lucky to avoid being sent off and giving away penalties, as would happen now.

But he would do snidey, little things himself that made it difficult and I didn't enjoy refereeing him at all. He was erratic and his antics were not easy to deal with.

©Clive Mason/Gallo Images

Pepe

What kind of a "best of" of heavy hitters would it be if the Portuguese defender Pepe was not on it...

"Everyone always asks about the incident in the 2016 Champions League final when I did that thing with my tongue as he was rolling around on the floor, play-acting. In my head I was thinking: 'How soft are you for a big man?'

He did it twice in that game, trying to get an Atletico Madrid player sent off. Another referee might have fallen for it but I'd done my homework and, while you should try not to pre-judge, I knew exactly what his mentality was like and I needed that knowledge to handle him.

He was another player you just couldn't trust. A game could be easy and straightforward then he would do something sly.

©Carl Recine/Gallo Images

In that final Real Madrid went 1-0 up in the first half but the goal was slightly offside and we realised at half-time — it was a hard call and my assistant missed it.

I gave Atletico a penalty early in the second half when Pepe fouled Fernando Torres. Pepe was furious and said to me in perfect English: 'Never a penalty, Mark.' I said to him: 'Your first goal shouldn't have stood.' It shut him up.

People might think that sounds odd, because two wrongs don't make a right and referees don't think like that, but players do. I knew by saying that to him it would make him more accepting of the situation.

But he was a wind-up merchant and not fun to referee one bit, you had to be on your guard constantly.

©Michael Campanella/Gallo Images

Rio Ferdinand

The centre-half moved to Old Trafford in 2002 and Clattenburg clearly felt he picked up the mind game game trick, but admits he mellowed with time.

"I found him difficult to referee during that Fergie era because he was always trying to play mind games.

"He tried to get under your skin, probably to get that next decision.

"He was such a difficult player to referee as he was always in your face. When I got older and a bit more wiser, he probably left us alone more."

©AI Project/Gallo Images