Steve Clarke branded ‘rude’ by Fifa exec as Scotland boss slammed over refgate

ARGENTINA’S refereeing body has accused Steve Clarke of being “rude” for his criticism of their whistler Facundo Tello after his refusal to award Scotland a last gasp penalty against Hungary.

The Scotland boss was raging at Tello’s decision not to award a spot kick when Stuart Armstrong was preparing to shoot and afterwards questioned why an Argentinian ref was in charge at the European Championships.

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But Tello has won praise in his own country from the Institute of Argentina Refereeing‘s director, Miguel Scime – an ex-FIFA referee who now advises the world football‘s governing body.

And he wasn’t impressed at Clarke’s outburst.

He said: “That was a very good job by Facundo Tello and his team of assistants, Gabriel Chade and Ezequiel Brailovsky for the match between Scotland and Hungary.

“I was sorry Scotland tried to justify their failure to qualify with the comments the coach made.

“It wasn’t a penalty and his comments after the game were just rude. No one has the right to criticise the refereeing team in that way.”

Clarke faces a sweat before seeing if UEFA take any action on his outburst where he bitterly complained about Tello’s performance and nationality.

A raging Clarke hit out after his team were eliminated from the Euros: “The moment in the game for me is the penalty incident.

“It’s one hundred percent a penalty and someone has to explain to me why it’s not a penalty. 

“Because otherwise I’m thinking there’s something wrong. 

“Did I have a conversation with the officials? What’s the point, he’s from Argentina. 

“What’s the point? Why is it not a European referee? Trying to be clever, I dunno, I don’t understand.  

“I don’t understand why he’s here and not in his own country refereeing a game. 

“I don’t understand how VAR can look at that and say it’s not a penalty.

“That’s just my opinion. 

“It’s 100 percent a penalty.

“Somebody somewhere has to explain to me why that’s not a penalty.

“It’s 100 percent and in a one-goal game, had we got that penalty, it could have been a different night.

“I’ve got other words but I’m not going to use them.

“In a European competition it might have been better to have a European referee.

“But we had European VAR. Maybe the referee didn’t see the challenge clearly on the pitch but what’s the purpose of VAR if they’re not going to come in on something like that. 

“It’s a penalty.”

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