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MARK CLATTENBURG has been dropped for this weekend’s Premier League fixtures after breaking protocol so he could watch an Ed Sheeran concert.

Clattenburg drove home alone after officiating West Brom’s home game against Crystal Palace so he could get back to Newcastle to watch Sheeran perform at the Metro Radio Arena.

The rules of the Professional Game Match Officials Limited state that officials must travel to and from the ground together to protect their integrity and security.

It also emerged that Clattenburg had broken another rule by speaking to Crystal Palace manager Neil Warnock on the phone in his car after the 2-2 draw at the Hawthorns. Premier League rules allow referees to speak to managers only when their assistants are present or when given permission, to stop employees speaking to managers in potentially highly-charged circumstances where witnesses may be needed.

Warnock claimed after the match that West Brom’s Craig Dawson had almost “assaulted” Palace’s goalkeeper Julián Speroni when Victor Anichebe scored in the 2-2 draw, comparing the incident to Peter Murphy’s challenge on Bert Trautmann in the 1956 FA Cup final.

Warnock said: “It’s almost an assault, how one of the four officials can’t be in a position to see that. Dawson had smashed him in the face and I am lost for words. He’s had a two- or three-yard run-up and smashed him in the face.

“I’ve had enough talking to the FA. I have not seen something like that since Bert Trautmann. I can’t say anything about the referee or I get fined and I don’t want to because I thought he had a cracking game but he had made two or three really bad mistakes.”

Clattenburg also failed to give Palace a penalty when Wilfried Zaha appeared to be fouled by Dawson. Warnock said: “You can’t win, we had four or five surrounding the referee last week and we were told that was wrong. He had a good game but two, maybe three, decisions went against us and it’s cost us.”

Clattenburg, widely regarded as England’s top referee since Howard Webb’s retirement, has had a career dogged by controversies, including the ordeal of being wrongly accused of racially abusing Chelsea’s John Obi Mikel, and an eight-month suspension following an investigation into his “private business affairs”. He was also cleared of wrongdoing last season when Southampton claimed he had “abused and insulted” Adam Lallana.

In 2009, the then-Manchester City manager Mark Hughes alleged that Clattenburg had based a decision to send off Craig Bellamy on a personal dislike for the striker, with a source claiming the referee had asked City staff as he walked by them: “How do you work with Craig Bellamy all week?”

Hughes said: “I don’t appreciate when referees start making comments about who they do or do not like in my team. They might be having a laugh and a joke. I have to be careful here as we are talking about integrity.” The FA asked Hughes to explain his comments, but took no further action. — The Guardian