Chelsea have appealed to UEFA over the punishments which followed their rancorous response to Champions League defeat at the hands of Barcelona.
Precisely a week after European football's governing body confirmed the Londoners would fight the bans handed out to striker Didier Drogba and right-back Jose Bosingwa, as well as an £85,000 club fine, the Blues revealed the reasoning behind their appeal.
A statement read: "We have lodged an appeal against the UEFA bans given to Didier Drogba and Jose Bosingwa, and the fine imposed against the club."
It continued: "We believe these punishments are unnecessarily harsh given the circumstances.
"We would reiterate that the players and the club are acutely aware of our responsibilities towards setting a good example as role models and upholding the values of the game.
"That is why honest and sincere apologies were made swiftly after these regrettable incidents occurred."
On June 17, Drogba was given a six-match ban - the last two suspended for two years - for his foul-mouthed confrontation with referee Tom Henning Ovrebo at the end of Chelsea's 1-1 Champions League semi-final second-leg draw with Barcelona on May 6 - a result which sent the English side out on away goals..
UEFA's control and disciplinary body also handed a four-match ban - the last game suspended for two years - to right-back Jose Bosingwa.
The Portugal defender labelled Ovrebo a "thief" after the same game, while the club received a fine of £85,000 for the improper conduct of their players and for the throwing of missiles by their supporters.
It all followed a controversial clash in which Ovrebo turned down a number of strong penalty appeals by Chelsea, which may have proved decisive before Andres Iniesta's injury-time decider for the Catalans. A date for an appeal hearing has yet to be revealed by UEFA.
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In fact UEFA is a cheat organization with the aim of itimidating lesser recognised club and players.Now nobody is talking about the hug cost placed on some player but when Chelsea was purchasing those old fools were making noise.They succeded in ploting Chelsea's fall and now giving suspension to Drogba and Bosingwa they should have ban them from football to show the wold thier been partila.
i find it extremely hard to take in why the referee in such an important match made so many mistakes yet it's chelsea being punished so are uefa saying all bad referees will go unpunished because they got the result they wanted from kim
Unless uefa punish the Ref as well and make an appology for such poor officiating then they themselves loose creditability. The whole saga was dishonest to say the least and if UEFA simply punish the club then they are a party to that dishonesty which was there for all to see. An honest organisation would take a balanced view and accept that loosing the game was punishment enough whilst accepting that the poor officiating actually ammounted to incitement. But in truth when have UEFA ever done the decent thing where british clubs are involved
We heard about the penalty for the players and clubs but what about the punishment for the refree that sees white and calls it black - yes Ovrebo got it seriously wrong
This is dragging on too long. Yes they over reacted, yes Ovrebo got it seriously wrong, they've all said sorry so let's get on with the new season. Oh yes and make the suspensions suspended in toto but to be implemented in full and immediate should they open their mouths out of place in the Champions League this year.
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