Last week Clauido Ranieri revealed that he was under intense pressure going into the first leg of the semi final against Monaco, the game being played away at the principality.
Ranieiri has revealed that he discovered that Chelsea met with Mourinho in a secret meeting the night before the game and he knew his time was up. He claims that he was desperate to win the CL in a last gasp attempt to keep his job.
I don't know if people remember the game, but I remember it clearly. Chelsea completely dominated Monaco for more than 60 minutes, despite going behind to Dado Prso, and looked like they would ease through the match after Hernan Crespo equalized.
Things went further in their favour when Monaco player Ziko was unfairly and incorrectly dismissed after a tussle with Makele.
The game was there for the taking, yet Ranieri is widely ridiculed for blowing it.
He broughht on two subsitutes, and played Hernan Crespo at right midfield. Later in the game, huge German centre half Robert Huth played right midfield. Chelsea amazingly collapsed and Monaco hit back with two goals to win the match.
In the return leg, Chelsea could only manage a 2-2 draw and thus were eliminated.
Monaco then went on to lose to Jose Mourinho's all conquering Porto in the final.
The speculation and the rumours about the game refuse to disappear.
Ranieri is widely known in England as a coach who made some bizzare decisions, but his substitutions and tactical changes in that game beggar belief.
Accusations of foul play are now beginning to arise, with Porto President Pinto Da Costa now claiming that Chelsea deliberately threw the match as their illegal approach to Jose Mourinho had got them entangled in a complicated web which would have had serious reprecussions from UEFA, who have well known suspicions of Abramavich.
The situation Chelsea were facing was that had the met Porto in the final and had carried on secret negotiations with Mourinho and had subsequently won the match, UEFA would have faced the biggest match fixing allegations in history, possibly leading to a UEFA competitions ban for Chelsea.
Pinto accuses Abramavich and Kenyon of deliberately instructing Ranieri to throw the game so as to avoid any possible legal trouble with UEFA.
Skysports elaborates on the Daily Mail article today at:
http://skysports.planetfootball.com/list.as....se+feud
The Chelsea/Porto fued dates back to the start of the summer and Ranieri's comments were widely published in the press last week.
Personally, I think the allegations are a bit extreme and I doubt if any team would throw a CL semi final, regardless of the circumstances, although a possibility of a UEFA ban would have been damaging.
Match fixing is alive and well: last week huge amounts of money were placed on Internet betting websites for Greek side Panionos to be beating Tblisi at half time and win the game 5-2 in the UEFA Cup.
Guess what happened: Panionos lead at half time and won 5-2.
Why the hell would Chelski blow the chance of a European cup just to get Mourinho on board? It doesnt make any sense whatsoever.
