Former referee Mark Clattenburg sparks outrage among Liverpool fans with controversial live TV comment during Champions League win over AC Milan

Liverpool fans were shocked after hearing a controversial remark from Mark Clattenburg during their 3-1 comeback victory over AC Milan. The former FIFA referee, now an expert for Amazon’s Champions League coverage, made the comment during Tuesday night’s broadcast.

Arne Slot’s team bounced back at the San Siro, overcoming the disappointment of a 1-0 defeat to Nottingham Forest on Saturday.

After conceding an early goal from Milan’s Christian Pulisic, Ibrahima Konate, Virgil van Dijk, and Dominik Szoboszlai all scored, leading the Reds to a commanding performance.

Milan’s supporters grew increasingly agitated; in the second half, the Curva Sud ultras were reportedly chanting ‘Show some balls’ and ‘You’ve p****d us off.’ Clattenburg suggested a controversial way to calm them down: “I think he (the referee) needs to calm the crowd down, the crowd is against him… I think he just needs to give one or two small fouls to get the judgement back.”

Liverpool fans reacted negatively to the implication that referee Espen Eskas should intentionally favor Milan.

“It’s mental, I couldn’t believe it when he said that,” one fan expressed on X, formerly Twitter.

“Clattenburg telling the ref to give Milan small fouls to appease the crowd, what an outrageous thing to say,” another added.

“I was just thinking what a great job the ref has done and then they brought Clattenburg on to tell us how he should be ruining the game,” wrote another supporter.

“Yeah I heard that too. Mental. Referee shouldn’t be managing the crowd’s emotions,” said another fan.

However, some agreed with Clattenburg’s viewpoint, with one writing, “It’s actually correct, he’s not saying give them a foul for nothing, but give them a couple of the soft ones. It’s called game management! Otherwise you’ll lose the crowd and the players and things will spill over. Mark is correct and the ref tonight was brilliant.”

Milan fans have generally been dissatisfied with the start of the season, as the Rossoneri sit 10th in Serie A after one win in four matches under new manager Paulo Fonseca.

Clattenburg, 49, officiated the finals of both the 2016 European Championship and the Champions League.

In 2017, he left his Premier League officiating role to become the head of refereeing for the Saudi Arabian Football Federation, where his earnings significantly increased from £100,000 in England to a minimum of £500,000 tax-free in Saudi Arabia.

In February, he was appointed as Nottingham Forest’s referees’ analyst and has also been a lead referee on the BBC show Gladiators, in addition to being a columnist for Mail Sport.