Ovrebo: I still receive death threats

Referee Tom Henning Ovrebo has admitted he still receives death threats from angry Chelsea fans.

The Norwegian was at the centre of Chelsea’s controversial 2009 Champions League semi-final defeat to Barcelona, when he turned down numerous Blues appeals for a penalty on the ill-tempered night at Stamford Bridge, before seeing Andres Iniesta spectacularly knock the London side out of the competition in the last minute.

Tempers boiled over following the equaliser, with Didier Drogba and Michael Ballack both angrily confronting Ovrebo.

Death threats had been sent to the referee following the game, and he says he still receives them almost three years on.

“I still get a few death threats, but they go straight into the garbage box,” he told The Times.

“I don’t take them seriously, although sometimes I wonder about the people who send them.

“Just yesterday I got an e-mail from a Chelsea fan saying he wanted to kill me and my family.”

Ovrebo, who continues to referee in the Norwegian leagues, has conceded he made some wrong decisions on the night, though he says he is pleased with the way he and his fellow officials kept their calm.

“Everyone who knows the laws of the game knows I should have done things differently, but that’s the life of a referee,” he said.

“In a strange way, I was actually satisfied with the way we all managed to keep calm in a tense situation.”