Sunday 10 December 2017 17:23, UK
The FA's decision not to address Mark Clattenburg's comments on refereeing Tottenham's game against Chelsea in 2016 has been described as "negligent" by Patrick Barclay on the Sunday Supplement.
Earlier this week, Clattenburg admitted he allowed Tottenham to "self-destruct" in their 2-2 draw with Chelsea in May last year, so that he could not be blamed for Leicester securing the Premier League title.
The former Premier League referee, who left his role earlier this year to become head of referees in Saudi Arabia, went on to tell Sky Sports News that he does not regret his officiating in that 'Battle of the Bridge'.
And while the Sunday Supplement panel queried whether his comments were overstated, Barclay insisted the FA and Premier League should have stepped in given the fact that Clattenburg did not back-track on the quotes, which first appeared on NBC's Men in Blazers podcast.
"You have to preface it all by saying, we all say things when we're carried away with our own eloquence. We talk big. And it may well be that he exaggerated how much God-like influence he was exerting over an important football match," Barclay said.
"If he was just talking big, he had a duty to say, 'Look, I didn't mean that' - to come down off your pedestal in the interests of the game.
"We all had the same reaction of, 'Please don't mean this', but the fact he hasn't done that [back-tracked] or hasn't been asked to do that is something that is very wrong. The FA and Premier League have really let us down a little bit on that.
"They may well say he's out of our jurisdiction, but he's in FIFA's jurisdiction. Saudi Arabia is not outside the world football family.
"This incident was done in the Premier League, under the overall ages of the FA, and they are in my opinion negligent in not following it up for that reason.
"It doesn't matter that he has gone to Saudi Arabia, there should be no fugitive status in football, and the whole point about it is that it runs its own affairs. I'm just aghast at the whole thing."
Meanwhile, the Daily Telegraph's Matt Law believes Clattenburg has "tainted" the refereeing position, which will affect the officials currently operating in the Premier League.
"It casts doubt on all the other referees. We try to fight against the fact that there could be an agenda in football, we hate people accusing us of agenda," Law said.
"Clattenburg has admitted to having an agenda, and that now casts dispersions on all the other referees. If another big game is refereed in a certain style, you will wonder if that referee has gone in with a game plan.
"If I was another referee in the Premier League I would be furious. It taints your profession and he has tainted the refereeing profession with his comments."
