Elleray feud made Clattenburg wait
THE fact English football’s top referee Mark Clattenburg had to wait so long to officiate in an FA Cup final is said to be the result of a difficult relationship with FA grandee David Elleray.
It is common knowledge on the football circuit that FA referees’ chief Elleray does not rate Clattenburg as highly as many others, such as UEFA’s leading referee official, Pierluigi Collina.
Collina is such a fan that when Martin Atkinson was chosen as the English representative to referee at Euro 2016, the Italian made sure that Clattenburg was added to the list and awarded him the ultimate European club honour of taking charge of the Champions League final in Milan next weekend.
And it is claimed that Elleray had no choice but to belatedly give Clattenburg a domestic Cup final when he was being so feted in Europe. RESPECTED TV presenter Paul Dempsey has been told he won’t be hosting any more David Haye fights on the Dave channel because it is understood the controlling boxer doesn’t like his awkward questions. Haye fights Arnold Gjergjaj tonight with Dempsey unavailable because of his FA Cup final commitments. Haye’s comeback against Australian Mark de Mori attracted a reported peak audience of three million on Dave. EVEN Manchester United’s David Gill (right), who was joined at the hip with Wolfgang Niersbach during FIFA’s Congress in Mexico City, will realise that the German’s position alongside him on the UEFA executive and FIFA council is untenable. The FIFA’s ethics investigatory chamber has recommended a twoyear ban from all football on Niersbach for his role when Germany allegedly bought the 2006 World Cup. Niersbach has stepped down from Germany’s DFB, but scandalously continues at FIFA and UEFA as if nothing has happened.
Meanwhile, FIFA should note that their appalling treatment of the media in Mexico City, with journalists having to watch a FIFA Legends match behind barbed wire in a condemned part of the Azteca Stadium while the delegate fat cats enjoyed a banquet pitchside, has gone global. BBC World Service had a report about this latest FIFA blunder on their weekly football programme. IF there is a Dickie Bird clock at Headingley and a Dickie Bird players’ balcony, surely Geoffrey Boycott — despite all the division he has caused Yorkshire over the years — should have an area of the ground named after him. A fitting tribute would be to name the football stand being redeveloped in time for the 2019 Ashes match after Boycott. Important figures in the club are in favour — but the county management who helped block his bid for a second term as president will have other ideas.