A former Premier League official has revealed that an incident with Jose Mourinho helped lead to his decision to exit the division.

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Former EPL official Mark Clattenburg left the league earlier this year to become the head of refereeing for the Saudi Arabian Football Federation, a decision that caught many off guard.

Speaking about making that move recently, Clattenburg said it was Mourinho's rant towards him last season, after United's game against Stoke City, that led to him eventually quitting his job in England.

"I was refereeing the game when Wayne Rooney broke Bobby Charlton's record and Mourinho came into my dressing room and he was unhappy about a handball penalty that I didn't give," he said during a Men in Blazers podcast.

"I'd walked off that pitch at Stoke, which was always the coldest stadium, it was always wet and miserable, and refereeing Man United was never an easy match.

"To come off that match, it felt immense that I'd actually had a good performance, and for him to come into my dressing room and criticise my performance for a handball that I'd seen, that had clearly come off his chest, I knew that I was right, but he'd put a seed of doubt into my mind.

"I drove home 250 miles thinking I'd made a big error, my wife knew my attitude had changed, and I thought to myself, 'Do I really want to be a part of this anymore? Do I really want to referee?'

"And I went soul-searching, I wasn't enjoying it as much as I used to and I had to get out."

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Clattenburg refereed in the Premier League from 2004 until 2017.

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