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UEFA picks referee Clattenburg for France-Portugal final

No Englishman has been chosen as referee for a UEFA European Championship final since Arthur Ellis and Arthur Holland officiated the first two finals in 1960 and 1964, respectively.

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Portugal will face Euro 2016 host France this Sunday in the tournament final at the Stade de France in Saint-Denis.

The only person to complete that achievement was Portuguese official Pedro Proenca in 2012.

But there will be one Briton walking out onto the pitch at Sunday’s final between France and Portugal: referee Mark Clattenburg.

“We don’t care about them”.

“If you ask me about 32, I am confident that we have more than 32 very competitive teams in Europe”.

Santos’ men had not won a game in 90 minutes before their semi-final victory against Wales, but Mario insists Portugal are now looking to the future and their final against either Germany or France.

The County Durham referee also took charge of Belgium versus Italy and Croatia against the Czech Republic in the group stages.

He twice awarded Palace free-kicks when arguably he should have played the advantage.

It’s the latest in what is a growing list of honours for the North East referee, after he was also the man in the middle for the Champions League final between Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid back in May.

Viktor Kassai of Hungary and his compatriot Gyorgy Ring are the fourth official and reserve assistant respectively in Paris.

Further incidents came in January 2014 when the governing body cleared him of misconduct when Southampton alleged he made inappropriate comments towards Adam Lallana, and in 2005.

If he Griezmann could somehow score a hat-trick in the Final against Portugal, he would tie countryman Michel Platini for most goals in a single Euro tournament, as well as Ronaldo for most goals all-time in the European Championships.

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He moved on to the Football Conference, before making his bow in the Football League in 1999, first as a linesman and then as a referee a year later.

Referee Mark Clattenburg talks with Czech goalkeeper Petr Cech after falres were thrown