Mark Clattenburg swapped the Premier League for Saudi Arabia early last year, but has returned to the UK as part of ITV's World Cup commentary team. He shared his opinion on the 2012 'Mikel incident' with 'Sportsmail'.
The 43-year-old was thrust into the public spotlight after racism allegations were launched against him by Chelsea's John Mikel Obi and although Clattenburg has always maintained his innocence, he admitted that it had a huge impact on his life.
He said: ''I had sent off two Chelsea players and there was an offside goal late on as well, so it was pretty heated coming off. Mikel came into my dressing room and certain things happened which I'll leave in there. But then Ramires made the allegation that I'd called Mikel a monkey on the pitch.''
''The first few days I was soul-searching — you know you’re innocent yet you’re made to feel otherwise. It took four weeks for Chelsea to reveal the moment it had allegedly happened, and after that it was very quickly dismissed.''
''The media were camped outside my house for days on end. It made world news. That is hard to deal with, I tell you. I knew it wasn’t true, but I could not speak. Me and my family went through hell — I even thought about quitting.''
Clattenburg added: ''If Mikel had come out and apologised, OK, be a man about it. But I haven't got respect for someone who makes a mistake on someone else's allegation and can't then say sorry.''
As for the future of refereeing, he said: ''I would let referees have a voice. That is one thing I would change. It was hard, especially when you are perceived in a certain way. There were so many situations I couldn't speak about and that was frustrating, it leads to speculation you can't control.''