The shameless derby: Why Nottingham Forest have made their clash with Manchester City a lose-lose for neutrals
City have made themselves hard to like amid allegations of financial wrongdoing, writes Peter Hall, but their opponents on Sunday have taken negative PR to another level with their tirade against VAR
To a lesser extent, when Nottingham Forest and Manchester City take to the field on Sunday, it must be what boxing traditionalists feel whenever Logan Paul and KSI step into a ring to headline a pay-per-view event.
While they have not been prosecuted for anything yet, many supporters of other clubs have washed their hands of City over their alleged 115 Financial Fair Play charges, whether they are guilty or not.
No smoke without fire, after a four-year Premier League investigation, the naysayers suggest, fuelled by the fact City don’t seem in any hurry to prove their innocence – something they insist can be easily done.
As a result, the champions go into most matches against teams who previously would have been impervious to the second-biggest team in Manchester as the instant villains of the piece. Except this weekend, when they take part in the shameless derby, facing a club doing their utmost to irk football’s traditionalists already in despair at the state of the modern game.
While there remains doubt over City’s guilt, there is no escaping for Forest fans, after their club brought shame of their good name this week with their remarkable chutzpah.
Hiring former senior referee Mark Clattenburg, someone comfortable with prying eyes on him as his tattoo collection shows, to be the club’s refereeing consultant – a post that does not exist anywhere else other than cloud cuckoo land – was only going to go one way. Nobody, however, expected things to play out quite so abhorrently this week, almost making City look like the Robin Hood of the pair in comparison.
In a world where it is easy to abuse someone from behind a keyboard or mobile phone screen, Forest, with Clattenburg’s backing, released that now infamous statement after last Saturday’s acrimonious defeat at Everton, accusing VAR Stuart Attwell of deliberately overlooking three opportunities to award Forest a penalty due to the fact he is a Luton fan.
Forest were already aggrieved about a series of decisions before the potentially crucial loss at Everton. They have been on the receiving end of half the six missed VAR interventions this calendar year: penalties that should have been awarded against Newcastle and West Ham, and a red card which should have been shown to Brighton’s Jakub Moder. The VAR wasn’t a Luton fan in either of those games. Just plain old boring human error.
Mistakes can happen and VARs do seem to be making more than they should, given the technology available to them. There is just a way to go about things, and this was not it.
What’s more, in only one case can Forest rightly claim to be aggrieved. Remember: Forest’s grievances are not with the original decisions from on-field referee Anthony Taylor, but with Attwell sat in Stockley Park.
The first two overlooked penalties did not give Attwell reason to claim a clear and obvious error had been made. Ashley Young’s foul on Callum Hudson-Odoi later in the encounter did, however. This was anything but clear cut, though, and still somewhat subjective. We are not talking Harald Schumacher levels of assault here.
Spotlight-hogging Clattenburg then used his column in the Daily Mail to double down on highlighting Attwell’s allegiances, while also referencing the statement released after the match, but pointedly stopped short of condemning it. Which is almost worse, given some readers of that particular newspaper may not be the most reasoned.
This whole incident has planted the seed of doubt – almost Trumpian behaviour. Most level-headed supporters out there will be aware that even if Attwell supports Luton, he will still be able to do his job with a clear mind, like the majority of the rest of us would.
But there are still some, even if a minority, that will start to question each refereeing appointment with extra scrutiny, targeting a profession already losing numbers due to the incredible levels of abuse they receive.
Forest have already been charged with FFP breaches, just to add to the rap sheet. Like City, there were always questions over how Forest could spend so much for a club of their size. Many have questioned why City have avoided a points deduction similar to Sunday’s opponents thus far, but the case is a very different one.
Their misdemeanours with their finances, as well as pushing the limits of social conduct, do make Forest equally as villainous as the champions, ensuring Sunday is potentially a lose-lose for the purists out there.
Nottingham Forest vs Manchester City, kick-off 4.30pm, is broadcast on Sky Sports
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