Remember Michael Carroll, the chav who won the lottery? Well, Chelsea have become football’s equivalent, writes Sunday People columnist Stan Collymore.

Referee Mark Clattenburg may have been cleared of calling Chelsea midfielder Jon Obi Mikel a monkey, but the damage to his reputation has already been done.

Under these ridiculous ­racism allegations, one of our best referees has not been allowed to do his job for a month.

His name has been sullied – just another example of how Chelsea Football Club has become a circus.

It’s bad enough watching how appallingly they treat their managers, but with this latest racism saga they have sunk to new depths.

You can buy everything apart from class – how that has been proven at Stamford Bridge.

It is an absolute joke for a referee to have to go through what Clattenburg has been subjected to.

There was never a cat in hell’s chance that Clattenburg used the insulting language he was alleged to have used – especially on the back of the John Terry case.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To me it was simple: Chelsea, feeling hard done by over what happened against Manchester United when they had two players (Fernando Torres and Branislav Ivanovic) sent off, were looking for a scapegoat and Clattenburg was an easy target.

Is there any chance of Chelsea ever getting back to ­playing football and winning trophies?

I’m fed up with all the stuff we hear from this club that has nothing to do with the game itself.

When Roman Abramovich took over at Stamford Brige I began thinking how great it would be if Aston Villa had their own sugar daddy. But if this is what happens, then clubs are better off without them.

Clattenburg has been left out in the cold, unable to say a word, while his name was dragged through the mud for a whole month. How was that allowed to happen?

Terry was allowed to play for a year while his racism case with Anton Ferdinand played out.

One man who can help turn this situation around is Mike Riley. He is in charge of the Professional Game Match Officials Board and was a good referee in his day. It is a shame he has not brought the common sense he showed in those days to the fore now.

You know what I’d love? I’d love referees to be ­allowed to give post-match interviews in the same way managers and players do.

Wouldn’t it have been great to hear Clattenburg listen to the allegations ­levelled at him following that stormy Chelsea-United game and then respond. I suspect he’d have said something like: “That is a complete load of nonsense.”

Which is exactly what this whole fiasco has been.