Nottingham Forest caused a stir after their appointment of former Premier League referee turned TV personality Mark Clattenburg as a club analyst.
TV pundit and former player Gary Neville attacked Clattenburg for taking on the new role, saying: “What are you doing? You’re being employed to go and tell a football club how referees are making mistakes or what mistakes they’re making.”
Clattenburg snapped back at Neville to point out that Sky Sports also employ former referees, including Dermot Gallagher, to discuss refereeing mistakes.
The official, who currently appears as the referee on the BBC reboot of Gladiators, himself also writes a column for the Daily Mail’s sport section on the weekend’s officiating.
His role with Forest is believed to be the first of its kind in the Premier League, but not in football – and certainly not in sports more generally.
During his most recent managerial job at AS Roma, Jose Mourinho hired former Serie A referee Gianpaolo Calvarese advice on how to deal with on-field decisions.
And although the terms are being investigated by Spanish authorities as part of a match-fixing probe, Barcelona paid the former vice-president of the referees committee for consultation work.
In rugby union, however, there is nothing unusual about hiring former referees to coaching teams.
The practice has been common in France, with the national team and a host of clubs benefitting from the expert tips of retired referees.
2019 World Cup final referee Jérôme Garcès joined France’s national team ahead of the 2021 Six Nations. He led coaching sessions and offered advice on discipline to players.
Les Bleus narrowly lost the Six Nations that year after Scotland scored an 85th-minute try. But Garces’ influence was proven by the fact that the French also conceded the joint-fewest penalties that year out of any of the teams.
France’s clubs took note and followed suit. Montpellier appointed leading referee Alexandre Ruiz while Castres signed Cédric Clavé.
After both clubs had been outside the Top 14 play-off places in the previous season, Montpellier beat Castres in the final to win the league in the 2021-22 season.
Several other rugby sides have also given jobs to former referees: Toulon hired Romain Poite, Fiji appointed Glen Jackson and former international referee Jayco Peyper has been working with South Africa.
Forest’s appointment of Clattenburg sparked a war of words with Gary Neville
Rugby is in some ways a more complicated game than football, though. The laws of the game are also dramatically redrawn every season, much unlike football’s relatively unchanging rulebook.
But there are clearly tensions within the football ecosystem. Forest themselves have sent three letters of complaint to the officiating board PGMOL this season alone.
Clattenburg’s role is believed to include advice on when to send complaints and how to approach officials.
What exactly this will mean in practice is yet uncertain. But if Forest can replicate the successes of France and Montpellier, then the gains of their new employee will have well and truly been reaped.