REVEALED: What Mark Clattenburg wrote in his autobiography to upset Roy Keane… after the Irishman refused the shake the former referee’s hand at the 2022 World Cup

The contentious passage of Mark Clattenburg’s autobiography that led to a frosty coming together with Roy Keane has been uncovered.

On a recent episode of Sky’s Stick to Football podcast, Keane recounted an incident with the former Premier League referee at the 2022 World Cup.

The Manchester United was at the tournament for punditry duties and bumped into Clattenburg alongside his podcast co-host Gary Neville.

Speaking about the ongoing controversy regarding Nottingham Forest’s statement to the Premier League in light of Clattenburg’s role at Nottingham Forest, Keane said to Neville: ‘He’s your mate Clattenburg! You were all over him at the World Cup’.

Neville then referred back to the encounter in Qatar: ‘He’s opened up a can of worms now! So basically, we’re walking along this place in the World Cup, the three of us were having a chat and Mark Clattenburg walks towards us’.

‘Right, he’s worked with us at the previous World Cups as our refereeing consultant, we trained with him and got to know him a bit.

‘So basically, we’re walking along and I’m like ‘Hi Mark, how are you?’ and then Wrighty goes ‘Mark, good to see you!’ and then he [Keane] hangs back a few yards.

‘And then he goes over to Roy to shake his hand and Roy goes [makes aggressive handshake motion]. No word of a lie!’

Keane confirmed Neville’s recollection and noted that the Mail Sport columnist had ‘said something in a book’ that prompted his disdain for the 49-year-old.

In his 2021 book Whistle Blower My Autobiography, Clattenburg cited Keane as an example of a player ‘you cannot trust’ as a referee and referred to the midfielder’s ‘hard-man exterior’.

‘Then there are those you just cannot trust, such as Roy Keane at Manchester United.’ Clattenburg wrote. 

‘He wanted nothing to do with referees on a personal level. He was not one for a quick chat in the tunnel before the game. That was all part of his hard-man exterior, he wanted to intimidate everyone.

‘On the pitch, you never knew what he was going to do next, and that unnerves you. If you missed a nasty challenge and he had hurt someone, you would get the blame, not him. He was not enjoyable to referee.’

However, he also noted that he thoroughly enjoyed getting to know Keane off the pitch when the pair worked together at the 2018 World Cup in Russia.

‘But then I spent quite a bit of time with him during the 2018 World Cup in Russia – he was also working for ITV – and I loved his company over dinner or in the bar, not that he ever had a drink.’ He continued.

‘It was fascinating to listen to the stories from his playing career and his time as manager of Sunderland. I was just a football fan lapping it all up. 

‘It was proof that these characters can be very different away from a competitive environment, where they are so driven to win, and Roy is perhaps the best example of that.’