Nuno Espirito Santo believes Mark Clattenburg was treated “unfairly” by those outside the club during his time at Nottingham Forest.

The former Premier League official resigned from his position as a referee analyst at the City Ground after only 77 days in the role.

Forest appointed Clattenburg in February in the hope he could be a line of communication between the club and the Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) —  the body responsible for match officials across English football — following a string of controversial VAR decisions that had gone against them.

But Clattenburg himself admitted — in a statement following his departure — that his appointment had “caused unintended friction between NFFC and other participants, to the extent that it has become more of a hindrance than help”.

Following the 2-0 defeat to Everton, Forest issued a strongly worded statement, in the aftermath of a game in which they felt they should have had three penalties and were awarded none.

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Forest’s reaction — however their frustration was, following a string of previous controversies that impacted on games — prompted Sky Sports pundit Gary Neville to call for Clattenburg to resign.

Forest, head coach Nuno and defender Neco Williams have all been charged with misconduct following their post-match comments.

“His statement was clear, we as a club didn’t have any intention of creating any kind of bad atmosphere, but that happened unfortunately,” said Nuno. “Mark made his own decisions based on what was happening — personally, I think what happened to him was unfair.”

When asked what was unfair, Nuno said: “Trying to focus on him. He didn’t have any intentions other than to help Forest as a club; to try and understand what nobody at that moment was understanding.

“There were wrong decisions — and wrong decisions not only made by one referee, but a group of referees. There were bad decisions that went against the laws of the game.

“We needed some expertise to understand why. But it (Clattenburg’s appointment) was not well accepted, not only by the public, the pundits — but by everybody in general, it was not accepted.”

(Mike Egerton/PA Images via Getty Images)