It was around five minutes after the full-time whistle in Everton’s 2-0 win over Nottingham Forest on Sunday afternoon that the send and nuclear buttons were pressed together.
An anger-laden 45-word statement was uploaded to Forest’s X account, lamenting “three extremely poor decisions” that reportedly tested the patience of Nuno Espirito Santo and his team.
More strikingly, Forest also questioned the integrity of Stuart Attwell, who had seen fit to let everything go unpunished as the game’s VAR. They had “warned” the refereeing body, PGMOL, according to the post, that ‘Attwell was a fan of relegation rivals Luton Town.
Three extremely bad decisions – three penalties not called – that we simply cannot accept.
We warned the PGMOL that the VAR was a Luton fan before the match but they didn’t change it. Our patience was tested several times.
The NFCC will now consider its options.
– Nottingham Forest (@NFFC) April 21, 2024
In the first 24 hours, the statement was viewed 42 million times without a hint of contrition. It was only when Forest followed a “formal request” to release audio recordings of officials’ communications that it lost its place at the top of the club’s official feed.
The content of Sunday’s audio – assuming it is released – will be eagerly awaited by Forest, who have floated the threat of further measures. The initial inflammatory statement said the club would now “consider its options”; this was an indirect reference to exploring the possibility of legal action if they were to be relegated next month.
All of this underlines that Forest is in no mood to back down. On the contrary, they are doubling down. The outrage felt by owner Evangelos Marinakis had not subsided a day after the perceived injustice and there were no regrets in making an ugly argument public on social media. Rather, Marinakis wanted to go further with the language used in the X-rated messages, only to be persuaded to moderate it by members of his entourage.
Forest believes they had no choice but to make it public, believing all other avenues for complaint had been exhausted during a season of grievances with PGMOL.
The fallout and repercussions are being felt following a damaging defeat at Goodison Park. No sooner had the Football Association confirmed it had launched an investigation into comments made by Forest staff, including Nuno and the club’s refereeing consultant Mark Clattenburg, than the Premier League stepped in with its own statement to clearly express your disappointment.
“It is never appropriate to inappropriately question the integrity of match officials, and the nature of these comments means that the Premier League will also investigate the matter in relation to League rules.” we read.
PGMOL chose not to say a word and declined to comment when contacted by Athleticism, but Forest found more to fill any void on Monday night. A more conventional statement was published on the club’s website, rather than via X. Not an apology, but an attempt at justification.
“The NFCC maintains its demand for greater transparency around PGMOL appointments to further protect the reputation of the game,” it said.
The genesis of this storm occurred Friday morning. Clattenburg had noted Attwell’s inclusion as VAR for Nottingham Forest’s crucial meeting at Everton and opted to phone PGMOL manager Howard Webb.
Clattenburg, a former Premier League and Champions League manager, has become the intermediary between Forest and PGMOL and speaks regularly with Webb, a former colleague.
Attwell’s allegiances are known to have been raised during a short conversation, but PGMOL privately rejected the suggestion that Clattenburg or Forest had made a request to change the VAR appointment. Forest’s most recent statement made it clear that the issue had been raised “because of the fear of spectacle that would ensue if something went wrong with the refereeing in the game”, but at no point did they ‘said this implied a call to remove Attwell.
Forest, who started Sunday just one point behind Everton, argue Attwell’s allegiances to Luton, the club which pose the biggest threat to their survival in the Premier League, should have ensured he was not involved.
All PGMOL officials are required to declare their historical allegiance to the clubs they or their family members traditionally support and, therefore, do not support matches involving those clubs or their nearest neighbors. The level of caution does not generally extend to blocking fixtures for matches involving promotion or relegation rivals with a month of the season remaining.
Luton are known to have been baffled by Forest’s reaction. Club members had booked a draw as their preferred outcome, ensuring that neither Everton nor Forest managed to escape the relegation zone. Two of Attwell’s three key decisions, rejecting Forest’s penalty claims late in the first half and early in the second, both denied Everton the chance of being caught by their visitors.
There is so far no evidence of Attwell attending Luton matches and others in the Premier League have shared their bewilderment at Forest’s confrontational approach. One club compared their behavior – and that of other clubs who have demanded explanations or apologies from PGMOL after refereeing errors – to young children throwing a tantrum.
There have also been private allegations of hypocrisy. A senior official at a top-flight club has highlighted that in the 2022 Championship play-off final, on a day which delivered a long-awaited promotion to the Premier League, Forest had help from VAR. Current Queens Park Rangers defender Steve Cook was filmed declaring his love for VAR during the celebrations of that famous victory against Huddersfield Town at Wembley.
Another Premier League club, who spoke to Athleticism speaking on condition of anonymity to protect his connections, was sympathetic to Forest’s case at the weekend and acknowledged there was frustration with the general standard of refereeing in the league this season. But they also underlined the belief that Forest had escaped a harsher sanction than the four points taken from them last month for breaching profit and sustainability rules (PSR). The temperament of Forest’s owners, namely Marinakis, has also been cited as a lightning rod for friction.
Crystal Palace’s post-match social media post captured the mood of others quite well. In a parody of Forest’s message, they wrote: “Five extremely good goals – two goals conceded – which we just have to accept. The #CPFC will now enjoy its Sunday.
Meanwhile, Alan Shearer, the former England striker and Athleticism columnist, spoke for many when he gave his take on the row on The Rest Is Football podcast. “What is Forest doing by issuing this statement? he said. “It’s an absolute embarrassment.”
However, in the face of this merriment, Forest have attempted to present themselves as crusaders in a competition which they say lacks consistency and transparency among officials. Clattenburg was supposed to be a diplomatic appointment at the club in February, but social media posts, approved by Marinakis, added fuel to the fire.
“It is clear that PGMOL must modify its rule on allegiances to account for contextual rivalries in the rankings, not just local rivalries,” Forest said in his subsequent statement. “It’s not currently part of the criteria, but it should be. Simply relying on match officials to recuse themselves if contextual rivalries exist invites conjecture, as some have recused themselves where others have not.
Clattenburg has been at the center of much of the fallout. In his Daily Mail column he called it a “joke” that three decisions had gone against Forest, but by then Gary Neville had already called on Clattenburg to resign from his post. “If words are being circulated that question the integrity of a referee and claim that someone is a cheat for supporting another club, then they support what is being said,” Neville said on Sky Sports. Neville’s wider comments about how the club had behaved infuriated Forest to the point where they are reportedly considering taking legal action against Sky.
Clattenburg has a contract with Forest which runs until the end of the season and his consultancy position is currently not considered to be in doubt. The club still sees him as a useful intermediary role between them and Webb: if he wasn’t employed, Marinakis would likely want to hold those conversations himself and it’s unlikely to end well.
Forest remains committed to inviting scrutiny of PGMOL and, in this case, Attwell.
Despite all his struggles as a young referee, Attwell is considered one of the best VARs in the Premier League.
The 41-year-old, from Nuneaton, has regularly supported Anthony Taylor in high-profile UEFA matches and, as recently as April 10, Attwell was the VAR in the Champions League quarter-final first leg between Paris Saint-Germain and Barcelona.
On Wednesday he will take charge of Wolverhampton Wanderers at home to Bournemouth in the Premier League, an appointment predating the storm surrounding his VAR performance at Goodison Park. The Wolves’ next opponents after this match? Luton town.
It is highly unlikely that Attwell will referee Forest again this season, but Forest are still seeking answers over how Ashley Young, the Everton defender, escaped punishment for apparent fouls on Gio Reyna and Callum Hudson- Odoi, on either side of the ball hitting his arm. in the penalty box.
In a social media saga, Young posted Monday morning that he was listening to “Old Skool Tunes.” His not-so-subtle choice? Cry me a river by Justin Timberlake.
Forest does not expect to escape punishment for his most damning statements, but is awaiting word from PGMOL regarding its request to replay recordings of the dialogue between Taylor and Attwell. The last of the three incidents was the most convincing, but it showed Taylor thinking Young had played the ball rather than tripping Hudson-Odoi inside the penalty area.
PGMOL used its monthly program Mic’d Up, filmed with Webb and former England striker Michael Owen, as a stage to acknowledge some of their most high-profile mistakes this season, but have already broken with convention by releasing audio of ‘a Luis. Diaz denied a goal in Liverpool’s defeat at Tottenham in October. This embarrassing mistake came from human error, with VAR Darren England mistakenly backing an incorrect offside decision.
Forest will look forward to audio footage of Sunday’s events. In the meantime, their anger is unlikely to subside.
(Top photos: Getty Images; design: Eamonn Dalton)