Everton and Nottingham Forest’s biggest fan channels have given their view on one of the most talked about and controversial sporting events of the weekend.

Although the Toffee’s came out of the game with a comfortable looking 2-0, this game was not smooth sailing, and it has instead caused heaps of controversary around the sport.

In the ‘6-pointer’ relegation battle match at Goodison Park this weekend, there was three separate potential penalty calls that were not given causing an uproar and a public statement from Forest.

‘Wolfie’ from Forest Fan TV told MerseySportLive that: “It’s got to the stage now where I’m so numb from the decisions we’re getting that I’m just not surprised. You know for me the first and the third are 100% penalties, and the second, if it was given, wasn’t getting overturned.”

“It’s not VAR, it’s the incompetence of the people using it. What’s going to happen to the ref or Stuart Atwell? They may miss a game but they’re still going to get paid, they may have to do a Championship game. That’s it, where’s the accountability?”.

Meanwhile, John B from Everton’s Toffee TV stood by the decisions made by the referees, declaring the subjective nature of the decisions has blindsided some fans.

“The referee did not get it wrong in all of them, many of these matters are subjective – I can see why he didn’t give any of them. (But) if Nottingham Forest committed them so called offences, I’d have been disappointed if at least one of them didn’t result in a penalty.”

“I saw Stan Collymore, who used to play for Forest, and he said he didn’t think any of them were penalties – Match of the Day thought maybe one of them was.”

“I’m sure PGMOL will have answers for all of them, but it wouldn’t surprise me if one of them resulted in an apology – couldn’t say which one because each of them you could see why the referee decided not to give them”.

Nottingham Forest’s public dissatisfaction over referee decisions

Not long after full time, the official Nottingham Forest X account posted a statement declaring their annoyance of repeated refereeing errors as well as their concerns that VAR official, Stuart Atwell, was a Luton fan.

Currently, Luton and Forest are just one point apart in 18th and 17th, with one of the two looking very likely to be relegated.

Forest Fan TV expressed their shock, declaring this incident as something they should be doing, not the official club.

“When I first saw it, I thought that they had been hacked – I was jaw dropped a little.

“I agree with what they have said but I don’t agree with using the official twitter channel.

“It’s more befitting of a fan channel like us doing it – so I 100% agree with what they’ve said, I just don’t agree with the execution.

“To me, the argument is what else is there to do? No one is listening, no one is going to change anything, so where do you go from here?”

Toffee TV furthered this, stating their concerns with the implication that the VAR official was cheating from the statement.

“Clearly, picking a VAR official who has publicly stated he’s a Luton fan is always going to cause issues if there is some contentious decision making.

“They’re fundamentally saying that the VAR official is a cheat, and that just can’t be allowed – I think they’re being crazy.

“One would like to think that regret it now but with nearly 40 million views on that tweet – it’s a bit late now isn’t it to back away from it.”

Mark Clattenburg booking a player.
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In February 2024, Nottingham Forest hired retired referee Mark Clattenburg as the club’s referee analysist. Since then, he has been very vocal on the performance of referees and has been outspoken when he believes Forest have been treated unfairly.

Following this game, in Clattenburg’s Daily Mirror column he furthered the statement by writing: “One of these errors would have been bad enough. Three was a joke, and that is why Nottingham Forest were left feeling victimised after another defeat in which zero big decisions went their way”.

After a poor refereeing performance in the Merseyside derby in 2007, Clattenburg did not referee a game at Goodison Park for 6 years under David Moyes tenure. Ironically, one of Moyes’ main complaints was him overlooking a penalty for Everton.

Toffee TV spoke on the irony of Mark Clattenburg’s outburst and questioned what his role and duties at Nottingham Forest team.

“People in glass houses should most definitely not throw stones and Mark Clattenburg has been involved in many contentious decisions with many at Goodison Park to the point where Everton refused to have him as a referee – that’s how bad he was!”

“He’s paid presumably a substantial amount of money by Nottingham Forest, to offer opinion dressed up as professional opinion that is supportive of whatever case they’re trying to make. So yeah I do think he’s embarrassing himself.”

“I’d imagine fellow, or ex referees are thinking – thanks very much mate that’s not very nice is it – for him to use such extravagant phrasing about how bad it was and trying to project an opinion that say these were all stone wall penalties… he’s bang out of order”.

In Sky Sport’s post-match reaction, Jamie Carragher talked heavily on the statement declaring it embarrassing and “like a fan at the pub”. Neville later went on to suggest that Clattenburg ‘must resign’ due to this.

Forest Fan TV expressed their disappointment in the reaction from the Sky Sports duo for focusing on the post rather than the message and reasoning for the reaction.

“(Gary and Jamie) they’re not going to call these things out are they – I’d rather they gave honest opinions like (Louis) Saha did yesterday and rather than focusing in just on the tweet, they needed to focus on the message of the tweet as well. Yes, it was unprofessional but then have the discussion about what is being done on these refs and these decisions.”

“Neville seems to only care what it directly affects Manchester United”.

Concluding, Forest Fan TV accepted that Everton had also been subjected to harsh decisions this season and implied that some Premier League sides are treated differently in these situations.

“Everton have had some stinkers as well – so if you’re not the cartel six you just have to take it it’s pathetic”.

(Featured Image credit – Louis White)

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