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After the controversy surrounding referee Mark Clattenburg for his performance and alleged “inappropriate language” when refereeing Chelsea on the 28th October it became apparent that this isn’t the first time Chelsea fans have felt aggrieved towards officials. As a Chelsea fan I am sure I remember these injustices more than the neutral but when you look at the evidence I have highlighted it’s easy to see how I feel the way I do.
Chelsea vs Barcelona – Champions League Semi Final (06/05/09)
The first game that springs to mind is the Champions League semi-final in 2009 at Stamford Bridge against Barcelona where Chelsea were knocked out on the away goals rule. All Chelsea fans watching that game were left with a huge sense of injustice and the players felt just as strong, if not stronger, and this led to angry scenes from several players leading to suspensions and fines.
Didier Drogba was banned for six matches, two of which were suspended for two years, for his swearing into a television camera after the final whistle. Jose Bosingwa was banned for three matches for his comment as to whether the referee was a “referee or a thief”. Chelsea, as a club, were fined £85,000 for improper conduct by players and fans.
The referee was Tom Henning Ovrebo. The Norwegian had to be smuggled out of the country, received numerous death threats and this game led to the demise of his refereeing career.
Ovrebo waved away many Chelsea appeals for penalties, including a handball’s from Gerard Piqué and Samuel Etoo in the final minute of play. Piqué’s handball was so blatant that it was reminiscent of Thierry Henry’s handball in the World Cup play-off against Republic of Ireland. Other penalty appeals were waved away by the Norwegian who has admitted that he did make mistakes during the game, “Everyone who knows the laws of the game knows I should have done things differently, but that’s the life of a referee.”
Ovrebo’s admittance of making mistakes will come as little compensation for the way in which they crashed out of the Champions League that season. Despite Michael Essien and Andres Iniesta’s phenomenal goals, the game has been remembered for a refereeing nightmare, much like the recent game at Stamford Bridge between Chelsea and Manchester United.
QPR vs Chelsea – Barclays Premier League (23/10/11)
The second game which comes to mind is last season’s controversial clash between QPR and Chelsea at Loftus Road. This game was marred by claims of racial abuse against John Terry directed towards Anton Ferdinand but referee Chris Foy certainly had a game to forget, in which he sent off two Chelsea players, gave QPR a penalty and waving away numerous appeals from Chelsea to even the penalty count.
With this game being the first league game between the London rivals since 1996 Loftus Road was bouncing and this made it difficult for players and officials alike. With both teams pumped up it took referee Chris Foy only forty minutes to reduce the away side to nine men and gift QPR a one nil lead via the penalty spot. The first red was more than a little contentious after Jose Bosingwa brought down Shaun Wright Phillips, Chris Foy was one of the only people in the stadium who believed Bosingwa guilty enough for a red card. The second red had less debate with Didier Drogba losing his cool by going in for a challenge two footed. Seven other Chelsea players were booked with only two players from QPR seeing the same fate.
To make matters worse for Chelsea, Chris Foy waved away strong appeals for penalties on John Terry, David Luiz and Frank Lampard. After the game Chelsea not only had to deal with a 1-0 loss but also some retrospective action from the FA. Chelsea were fined £20,000 for not controlling their players and then manager Andre Villas Boas was fined £12,000 for his comments on referee Foy in the post-match interview.
Chelsea vs Manchester United – Barclays Premier League (28/10/12)
Finally, we come to the game at Stamford Bridge between Chelsea and Manchester United on the 28th October 2012. Mark Clattenburg was appointed referee and took charge of the best 60 minutes thus far in the Premier League season. Attacking football, goals, flair, individual brilliance and collective resilience were all on show only for the referee to steal the limelight for all the wrong reasons.
Chelsea were reduced to nine men by Clattenburg, with one decision being spot on and the other being anything but. Branislav Ivanovic was correctly dismissed for bringing down Ashley Young when he had a clear goal scoring opportunity; however the main source of controversy was Clattenburg’s dismissal of Fernando Torres. Already on a booking, Torres was left three on one against United defenders. He managed to slip the ball past Johnny Evans, only for Evans to wildly lunge in and bring Torres to the ground. When the referee blew his whistle and reached for the card it was Johnny Evans looking worried as to what colour the card would be for him and if he would stay on the pitch. The relief on his face was evident when Clattenburg skipped past him to show Torres a second yellow for a supposed dive. It was a shocking decision which left Fernando Torres kneeling on the ground in amazement.
In spite of making a blunder Clattenburg continued with his favourable decision making to Sir Alex Ferguson’s side. Then his linesman joined in to allow a Javier Hernandez goal to stand despite the Mexican being offside at least once in the build-up and finish to the goal. Chelsea were left feeling aggrieved and John Obi Mikel was booked in the aftermath of the goal for dissent.
After the game it was revealed Mikel has claimed that Clattenburg used inappropriate language towards him and the comment was of a racist nature. This is yet to be proven and therefore we cannot judge what was really said however it is clear that the referee was very firm with Chelsea players, such as Mikel and Juan Mata (who also claimed to have been subject to inappropriate language from Clattenburg), but very happy to converse with Manchester United players.
Whatever did happen on the pitch between the players and referee is yet to be established but the actions of the officials played a very strong part in Chelsea losing their 100% start to their League campaign.
These are three matches in which Chelsea fans feel official’s decisions went against them. It must be noted however that Chelsea do also receive favourable calls in helping them win football matches. Manchester United fans can certainly remember a Didier Drogba offside goal being allowed to stand, Tottenham fans will remember Juan Mata’s “ghost goal” in the F.A Cup semi-final and Reading fans will look back to earlier this season where Fernando Torres scored the winning goal from an offside position.
The three referees mentioned here (Ovrebo, Foy and Clattenburg), despite having poor games in the above matches, have all had successful refereeing careers and should not be begrudged of claiming themselves to be top referees because of a few bad matches.
