'Chelsea yesterday expressed concern at the strength of language employed by Uefa on Monday when charging them with bringing the game into disrepute. The club are worried that it will be difficult for the ruling body's disciplinary department to behave impartially against the backdrop of such fierce condemnation.
"Uefa appear to have come to their conclusions without considering both sides of the argument," a Chelsea source said yesterday. "They have completely jumped the gun, acting as judge and jury. How can we hope to receive a fair hearing?"
The worry surfaced as Uefa's director of communications made it plain that expulsion from the Champions League was a real possibility.
"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 sanction appropriate, Chelsea's position in the quarter-finals would be overturned in favour of Barcelona, since a 3-0 first-leg win would give the Spanish side a 5-4 aggregate victory.
Chelsea's anxiety that Uefa is acting as "judge and jury" has been raised by the composition of the disciplinary panel. The prosecution will be conducted by Uefa's disciplinary inspector Edgar Obertüfer, who wrote the charge against Chelsea in which Jose Mourinho and his staff were accused of having "created a poisoned and negative ambience". His case centres on alleged inconsistencies in Chelsea's report to Uefa over an alleged incident in the tunnel in Barcelona.
Uefa has discharged its most senior disciplinary official, Josep Lluís Vilaseca Guasch, from the hearing because he is a Catalan. Jacques Antenen, chief examining magistrate in the Swiss district of Vaud, is expected to chair the hearing.'
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, or perhaps to the civil courts. However, with only six days between next Thursday's hearing and the April 6 quarter- final first leg, even if the CAS were to find in Chelsea's favour, it would seem unlikely that they would have sufficient time to be reinstated in this season's competition.'