Chelsea conspiracy theory dismissed

UEFA General Secretary David Taylor has slammed the conspiracy theorists who believe Chelsea’s controversial exit from the Champions League reflected the governing body’s desire to avoid another all-English final.

Several Chelsea players believe that might explain the erratic refereeing of their semi-final second leg against Barcelona by Tom Henning Ovrebo.

The Norwegian official’s failure to award any of the London club’s four strong penalty appeals on Wednesday night effectively cost them a chance to avenge last season’s final defeat by Manchester United.

Ovrebo undeniably made a string of errors but Barcelona were also victims of his poor decision-making with Eric Abidal sent off 25 minutes from the end for tripping Nicolas Anelka, who actually tripped himself up.

Taylor, who was at the match at Stamford Bridge, said he was angered by the implication that UEFA would try to influence the outcome of a match.

“If anything it’s a media conspiracy against UEFA,” he said. “It does make me angry. It really annoys me because it’s a load of rubbish.”

The conspiracy theorists were also rubbished by former top referee Graham Poll.

“I refereed in UEFA for 13 years, I was involved for 11 years in their top 30 referees, I did two World Cups,” Poll told the BBC.

“Never was there any suggestion, any thoughts about ‘it would be nice if this team won’ or ‘could you do this team a favour’. I promise you.

“You cannot guarantee things in life because you are always shocked by things, but it’s 99.9 percent certain that there is not a possibility of anything untoward here. It doesn’t happen.”