Fulham boss Roy Hodgson has slammed pundit Jamie Redknapp for his attack on Chelsea ref Tom Henning Ovrebo.
Redknapp said Ovrebo was out of his depth because he was from Norway.
Fulham boss Hodgson, said: “Do people want to go down the Jamie Redknapp route — that only England, Italy and Spain count and everywhere else is no good?”
Chelsea went out of the Champions League with a 1-1 draw, having had four penalty appeals rejected by Ovrebo who has since received death threats.
And TV pundit Redknapp said: “How many big games has he reffed in Norway? I don’t know why we can’t have the best ref from Germany or Italy.
“I don’t think someone from Norway should be reffing a game with the intensity of this one.”
Hodgson, who has worked extensively in Scandanavia, hit back.
He said: “Are we going to say, ‘You’re from Spain, you might be OK but the rest of you, Switzerland, France, Poland, Russia, Austria, Ukraine, Slovenia, Serbia, can go f*** yourselves because you don’t count?’ It’s nonsense.”