Chelsea to discover their fate today
The club, manager Jose Mourinho, his assistant Steve Clarke and security official Les Miles have all been charged with bringing the game into disrepute - allegedly for making “false, wrong and unfounded” claims that Barcelona coach Frank Rijkaard spoke with referee Anders Frisk in the match official’s dressing room at half-time in the Nou Camp last month.
Chelsea will not send any representatives to the disciplinary hearing in Nyon, Switzerland, but they have had lawyers working on a written defence strongly rebutting UEFA’s claims.
It is understood the club will stick to their line that Clarke and Miles saw Rijkaard in an area forbidden to coaching and playing staff and reported their concerns to Mourinho in good faith.
They are also set to claim there are many inaccuracies and discrepancies in UEFA’s report to the semi-independent disciplinary and control panel.
Mourinho has already back-tracked on his remarks in a Portuguese magazine that he saw Rijkaard enter the referee’s dressing room, but he could still find himself in trouble personally for saying in the column: “It was an adulterated result. When I saw Rijkaard enter the referee’s room at half-time I couldn’t believe it ... when Drogba was sent off I wasn’t surprised.”
Chelsea’s main aim will be to disprove UEFA’s claim that the whole saga was a series of deliberate lies by Mourinho and the whole club in order to influence the outcome of the second leg of the Champions League knockout round.
When the charges were announced, UEFA released a statement saying Chelsea had deliberately created “a poisoned and negative ambience” by their report alleging the meeting between Frisk and Rijkaard had taken place.
The hearing is due to start at 11am BST with a decision mid-afternoon.
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