Chelsea yesterday expressed concern that they may not be given a fair trial when they come up against a Uefa disrepute charge next week.
Chelsea, coach Jose Mourinho and his staff were accused of having “created a poisoned and negative ambience” and it is the strength of the language employed by Uefa that concerns the Premier League club.
“Uefa appear to have come to their conclusions without considering both sides of the argument,” a Chelsea told The Guardian newspaper yesterday.
“They have completely jumped the gun, acting as judge and jury. How can we hope to receive a fair hearing?”
Meanwhile, Uefa’s director of communications made it plain that the club could be expelled from the Champions League.
“A coin was thrown at the referee Anders Frisk at Roma and the club lost the game 3-0 as a result of the decision of the control and disciplinary body,” said William Gaillard.
“That is something where there is an objective responsibility – someone threw a coin but we don’t know who. At the same time the charges against Chelsea are most grave because they are not an objective responsibility. This was as part of a conspiracy [of using lies as a pre-match tactic].”
If the control and disciplinary body consider a similar punishment appropriate, Barcelona would be awarded a 3-0 first leg which would give the Spanish side a 5-4 aggregate victory.
Mourinho told a Portuguese television station: “Obviously I and other people involved, mainly the club, which is much more important than we are, have the expectation of complete dismissal [of charges], complete dismissal.”
If the control and disciplinary body finds against Chelsea, they will then have recourse to an 11-man appeals panel, from which the Football Association councillor Barry Bright would be excluded.
If Chelsea are removed from the Champions League, the club would be permitted to resort to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne, but with only six days before the quarter-final tie against Bayern Munich, it seems inconceivable that the court could be convened in time to rule on their reinstatement.
