Mark Clattenburg will referee the Euro final, so everyone will hate him
UEFA has announced that Mark Clattenburg will referee Sunday's Euro final between France and Portugal. That means Clattenburg will have refereed both major European finals this year, having taken charge of the Champions League final six weeks ago.
Clattenburg can count on being hated by pretty much everyone simply because he was selected for the match. And that's not a commentary on his history or reputation so much as the hate that comes to every referee who is in charge of a major match.
Soccer's officiating system is essentially rigged against the referees. They're asked to watch 22 players on a giant field with only the help of a few assistants who are limited in their movement. There is no way any referee can do that job very well. That doesn't mean that there aren't good and bad referees, at least relative to one another, but viewers are almost always going to find fault in a referee's performance because it's impossible to call a great match.
Clattenburg referees a lot of big matches, as evidenced by him getting back-to-back European finals. The hate sent his way is largely a product of him being in so many big matches and people seeing him so often, more so than whether he is actually good at the job. So when he blows the whistle to start the Euro final on Sunday, you can expect a lot of grief to come his way. That's just the nature of refereeing another final.
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