Mark Clattenburg has been criticised on social media over his reaction to an unsavoury incident in Tuesday's game between Real Madrid and Benfica. The former Premier League referee was on punditry duties for Amazon Prime alongside Alan Shearer for the Champions League play-off at Estadio da Luz. Real Madrid took the lead shortly after the break, with Vinicius Junior finding the net in excellent fashion.
The winger curled a strike into the top corner and celebrated wildly, earning a yellow card in the aftermath of his goal. He then appeared to allege that he was racially abused, seemingly by one of the Benfica players. The referee responded by initiating UEFA's anti-racism protocol, causing a lengthy stoppage in play.
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Offering his view on the situation, Clattenburg suggested that Vinicius reporting the alleged comments had made life 'very difficult' for the referee.
He was widely criticised for that assessment on X (formerly Twitter), with a number of viewers making their feelings known.
@AdamJoseph wrote: "Mark Clattenburg, get a clue. Saying Vinicius Junior has 'made it difficult'. He can celebrate scoring in front of the crowd.
"There is NOTHING wrong with that. In no way does it justify or legitimise alleged racist abuse. This shouldn't have to be said."
@AlexisIsKavkas said: "Clattenburg’s comments on TNT are absolutely disgraceful. TNT need to get the mic away from him, he is digging a deeper hole for himself, he isn’t giving enough importance to what was said to Vini."
@MikeHal08477906 posted: "Honestly, I can't see Mark Clattenburg being invited onto another show after his antics about Vini Jr. I could feel Alan Shearer cringing through my television and I wonder if he told the director to shut him up."
@RussMCR added: "Mark Clattenburg has had a stinker," while @jonsheaa simply wrote: "Mark Clattenburg? Are you okay?"
The match was suspended for around 10 minutes before play eventually continued, with the Real Madrid players returning to the pitch after initially leaving the field of play. It's not clear exactly what was said to Vinicius to spark the stoppage.
Shearer, who was on punditry duties alongside Clattenburg, said: "We don't know what's been said to him. We can see Jose Mourinho down there and he's gone speaking to Real Madrid staff and Vini Jr himself to calm him down.
"It's such a shame, isn't it? We should be talking about an excellent piece of skill and how he produced a piece of magic which this game needed."
Vinicius was heavily booed by Benfica supporters with every touch of the ball following the stoppage in play. He initially refused to return to the pitch but later came back out with the rest of the Real Madrid team.
During the closing stages of the match, Benfica boss Mourinho was sent off in a separate incident after being shown two yellow cards in quick succession.