Referee Mark Clattenburg has been pulled from the weekend’s fixtures in the aftermath of the racism storm.

After Chelsea ‘s official complaint to the FA, it was felt there was little choice but to remove Clattenburg from the weekend matches as more details emerge from an extraordinary match that for the first time resulted in an allegation of racism against an official.

The referees' body the Professional Game Match Officials board issued an official statement  explaining the decision, saying:

"PGMO believe that with any football match the focus should not be on the officials but on the players and the game itself.

"Clattenburg is one of the elite referees in world football and the intense level of scrutiny would detract from the match and be unfair to the clubs and the supporters of both sides."

Meanwhile The Daily Mail have claimed that it was not  Mikel himself who heard the alleged racial abuse but his teammates Ramires and David Luiz, both of whom are “prepared to make formal statements” testifying to that fact and Mikel was not informed until the end of the game and at which point the publication claim Di Matteo and Ron Gourlay had to stop Mikel attacking Clattenburg during the confrontation.”

Juan Mata however did hear the second case of ‘insulting language’  first hand and was “visibly shocked” at being called a ‘Spanish ****’ and like Mikel is prepared to take the complaint to the highest level, meaning Chelsea FC are set to be involved in another FA investigation.