One of the most well-known officials of the Premier League era passed away over the weekend, with it being announced that Uriah Rennie had died at the age of 65.
His passing has been met with a huge number of tributes from the world of football, with the Jamaican-born referee a genuine trailblazer in the game.
Rennie was the first black man to officiate in the Premier League back in 1997, going on to establish himself as a well-respected figure on both the club and international scene. He would be involved in a few memorable incidents during his time in the English top flight, with one of the most notable involving a pair of Ireland internationals.
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Referee Detailed 'Fury' Of Roy Keane During Infamous McAteer Incident
Roy Keane was involved in quite a few clashes with opposition players down through the years, one of the most notorious of which involved one of his Ireland teammates.
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It came during the 2002/03 season, soon after the Cork man's decision not to play in the previous summer's World Cup. Jason McAteer is someone who the Manchester United captain had never seen eye-to-eye with, something that would come to the boil in a game against Sunderland at the Stadium of Light.
McAteer would make a number of verbal jibs at his fellow Irish international, including about his recently released autobiography. The two players would become involved in a scrap on the pitch, during which referee on the day Uriah Rennie was forced to intervene between the pair.
Tasty enough.
While they would avoid coming to blows on that occasion, Keane would later be sent off in the game for a rather hefty elbow to the face of McAteer.
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Rennie would actually recall the incident in his 2022 autobiography Your Show, saying he intervened in order to stop Keane from going too far.
They both tumble onto the turf. Limbs flailing. Elbows and knees. Roy's reacting now, fury in his eyes, head's gone. This feud has history... grab Roy, save Jason?
Only a moment to think. You take matters in your own giant black hands with a cliff-edged fearlessness. You get in between the two... You grab Roy, grip onto his shirt like you did a few seasons ago at White Hart Lane, but tighter.
The referee was actually a martial arts expert in his own right, meaning he was well placed to intervene in the scuffle. Of course, he did not have the opportunity to step in for the incident later in the game.
Roy Keane would receive a £150,000 fine for the elbow, a punishment that he maintains to this day was unjust. Speaking on Stick to Football in 2023, he claimed that he should not even have been sent off in the game.
Do you know what, he was one of these players who shout their mouths off.
I didn’t mind lads kicking me or booting me, honestly, but McAteer as usual had plenty to say for himself. But even then, I didn’t deserve to be sent off in that game, absolutely not.
If you look back on it, I didn’t even catch him.
It's safe to say that there is still no love lost between the pair.