Chelsea have requested that their Quarter-Final clash against Middlesbrough in 2021-22 FA Cup is played behind closed doors ‘for matters of sporting integrity.’
Last week, Chelsea’s owner – Roman Abramovich was hit with various sanctions by the UK Government due to his Russian links, which in turn meant that the club itself was impacted in various ways.
One of those club impacted sanctions included a ban on sale of tickets to those who hadn’t already brought match tickets with immediate effect, which meant that Chelsea are set to bring just around 800 season ticket holders to their Quarter-Final tie at Middlesbrough on Saturday 19 March.
Chelsea though opted to engage ‘in extensive discussions with the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI) concerning their ticket sale ban, yet a resolution couldn’t be reached prior to the deadline of away ticket sales last night (14 March) at 7:30pm
Middlesbrough however chose to provide assistance of a 14 hour ticket sale extension to allow the possibility of Chelsea selling their entire allocation, yet no further progress was made by the conclusion of the extension.
Chelsea consequently have decided ‘with extreme reluctance’ to request to the FA Board that the tie is played behind closed doors in ‘matters of sporting integrity’, due to Middlesbrough having secured a sell-out home crowd of near 30,000 fans.
Acknowledging that this move is set to anger Boro fans as well as their own fans who have already brought tickets, Chelsea argued that playing the match without fans would be ‘the fairest way of proceeding in the current circumstances.’
Middlesbrough responded to Chelsea’s actions with their own lengthy statement which reads: ‘We are aware of Chelsea’s request to have Saturday’s Emirates FA Cup sixth round tie played behind closed doors and find their suggestion both bizarre and without any merit whatsoever.
‘All concerned are well aware of the reasons Chelsea have been sanctioned and that this has nothing to do with Middlesbrough Football Club.
‘To suggest as result that MFC and our fans should be penalised is not only grossly unfair but without any foundation.
‘Given the reasons for these sanctions, for Chelsea to seek to invoke sporting “integrity” as reason for the game being played behind closed doors is ironic in the extreme.
‘We currently await formal notification from the FA of the next steps but rest assured MFC will resist Chelsea’s actions in the strongest terms.’
The FA meanwhile announced that Chelsea’s request will be discussed at their board meeting tomorrow in a tweet.
— FA Spokesperson (@FAspokesperson) March 15, 2022
Discussions however swiftly followed between The FA and Chelsea officials which led to the Blues dropping their request.
— FA Spokesperson (@FAspokesperson) March 15, 2022
Middlesbrough are looking to claim a third consecutive Premier League scalp after knocking out Manchester United and Tottenham in the last two rounds, with their tie against Chelsea set to be televised live on BBC One on Saturday in a 5:15pm GMT kick-off.
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