Kenyon bids to heal rift with UEFA

14 April 2012

Chelsea chief executive Peter Kenyon flew into Geneva for peace talks today in an attempt to heal Chelsea's fractured relationship with UEFA.

Kenyon was due to meet UEFA's chief executive Lars-Christer Olsson before today's Champions League quarter-final draw at UEFA's Nyon headquarters as both sides seek to draw a line under three weeks of feuding.

Kenyon had not planned to attend the draw as club secretary David Barnard usually represents Chelsea on such occasions, but after several telephone conversations with Olsson he has decided that a face-to-face meeting is the best way of defusing what has become a tense situation.

Chelsea have been widely criticised in Europe in recent weeks following their acrimonious Champions League tie with Barcelona and the subsequent retirement of referee Anders Frisk, with the head of UEFA's refereeing committee Volker Roth branding Jose Mourinho the "enemy of football."

Today Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger expressed his concerns over the Frisk death threats. He said: "It is sinister and it is bad for the image of the game. Fortunately nothing happened to the guy but it is sinister.

I imagine a guy who takes the phone and calls him or sends an email and says, 'Listen I will kill you'. How can you do that ? What goes through the brain of a guy like that?

"It is terrible for football. I think managers have to take a step back when criticising referees."

The ill-feeling between Chelsea and UEFA was not helped by Mourinho's inflammatory threat to sue Roth but some frantic negotiating behind the scenes has restored the relationship, leading to today's peace summit.

UEFA made the first move on Wednesday by distancing themselves from Roth's comments and went even further yesterday, publicly insisting that Mourinho played no part in Frisk's retirement.

Kenyon will express sympathy for Frisk but also point out that Mourinho is not the first manager to criticise referees.

Wenger added: "You get threats as a manager but the resignation of Frisk was a huge surprise to me. England is the country most advanced on that in Europe. They clamp down quickly and you pay hard. We have to take responsibility as managers and maybe everybody in the game must take responsibility.

"But you cannot dream of a world of a referee without pressure. That does not exist."

MORE ABOUT

Chelsea F.c.

Jose Mourinho

Referee

UEFA Champions League

Kenyon bids to heal rift with UEFA

Read More