Terry lashes out at officials

CHELSEA captain John Terry has hit out at the standard of refereeing in the Champions League in the wake of his side’s elimination from the competition at the hands of Inter Milan.

Terry runs the risk of a UEFA punishment after claiming “bad refereeing” cost his side dear in the defeat against the Italian champions.

Chelsea had two strong penalty appeals turned down by referee Wolfgang Stark during Tuesday’s loss at Stamford Bridge, while ill-feeling remains over the four penalty appeals famously turned down by Tom Henning Ovrebo in the Blues’ semi-final exit against Barcelona last season.

“It was a bad performance by us but a really bad performance from the referee,” Terry said of Tuesday’s 1-0 loss, which sealed a 3-1 aggregate defeat. “It is not good enough at this stage of the competition. We do our best to get ourselves in this position and for two years running we get let down by bad refereeing.’’

The 29-year-old added: “I’m not going to say the word conspiracy. But I’m so frustrated by what happened. Florent Malouda got fouled inside the box in the first half and the referee waved play on. Didier Drogba gets manhandled and if the referee misses it, we have the linesman.”

Terry claimed Stark was unwilling to talk with him during Tuesday’s game, and accused the official of showing “disrespect”.

“When a decision didn’t go our way I, as captain, went to speak to the German referee and he turned his back on me,” Terry said.

“I wasn’t shouting. I went to try to talk to him and when he wouldn’t talk that is when I got frustrated. That is just pure disrespect. If I get myself in trouble, then so be it. I owe it to our fans to speak out.”