Mark Clattenburg reveals that he was considering taking his own life after he was wrongly accused of racism by John Obi Mikel van Chelsea

Former Premier League referee Mark Clattenburg has revealed that he was considering taking his own life after being wrongly accused of racism.

The official was accused of making a racist comment on two Chelsea players, including John Obi Mikel, in a fixture against Manchester United in 2012.

The allegations have activated research by the football club and the metropolitan police.

Clattenburg missed four weeks of Premier League promotion, while the FA investigated the complaint.

The allegations were later rejected by the football club and the police dropped their own investigation.

And Chelsea admitted that they have treated, ‘regretted’ the way in which they have treated the accusation and ‘intense media control’, confronted with the referee and his family.

He was accused of making comments to two Chelsea players in a match against Man United

The referee later started the Euro 2016 -final and the Champions League -final

Clattenburg revealed that the allegations led him to consider suicide, but that he did not decide to be because of his newborn daughter.

He told the podcast with high performance: ‘The situation of Obi Mikel has affected me a lot and influenced my family a lot. I think that was the closest thing I have ever been, A, suicide and, B, finish. If I didn’t have a way out and I could no longer be a referee, what can I do?

‘I remember my mobile phone, everyone gets the notifications, and it was a Sky sport report [saying] ‘Mark Clattenburg accused of racial discrimination against two Chelsea players’. And I had a newborn, she was only six months old. ‘

He added: ‘It was the worst 12 hours. I remember not slept. I didn’t go to bed. I was looking for soul because I didn’t know what I had said, so I try to find out if I had said something in the heat of the moment. That was the hardest, thinking that I had done it.

‘It only started when time began to pass and Chelsea could not provide the necessary information.

After the ruling in 2012, Clattenburg said: “To know that you were innocent, but there was the chance to have your career demolished, it was really frightening.”

He returned to the Premier League service four weeks later and continued with the referee De Euro 2016 Final and the final of the Champions League four years later, before retired in 2017.

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