On one front, the Chelsea claims that referee Mark Clattenburg used inappropriate language and was racial abusive towards John Obi Mikel have failed to cause any sort of dent in the man’s armor as the police have dropped the case due to no one actually coming forth and presenting them with evidence.
Maybe their dealings with the FA are different, but no victim (Mikel) or anything close to evidence was presented to the Scotland Yard. Simply filed a complaint about Clattenburg being racist, and went on with their lives. He hasn’t worked a match since, although he has returned to training with the top-flight Select Group of referees last weekend for the first time since Chelsea’s complaint.
The FA are conducting their own investigation in the matter, which leads to two questions. A) How much investigating is really needed in this case? Aren’t they just buying time in an uncomfortable situation? and B) Did Chelsea really file a complaint because one of their players complain about racist language being directed towards him, or was it just being petty from the loss and the decisions that went against them with the offside goal and the Fernando Torres red card?
According to Bruce Buck, the Chelsea Chairman, the reaction against his club has been unfair – for trying to throw the John Terry card into the mix, for claiming Chelsea are doing all of this out of spite.
The reaction has been very unfair. We weren’t interested in any confrontation with the referee or anybody else, had no thoughts of revenge on the referee. He made two obvious mistakes which changed the tide. I felt we had the moral high ground, so I didn’t really feel that bad about the defeat or have that feeling in my stomach. I thought we’d be treated very kindly in the newspapers next day.
We have an obligation to report what may be misconduct. We did that, in good faith and not maliciously. Suppose we had tried to sweep this under the rug and said to the various players: ‘Look, it’s not a big deal and the press are going to be all over us, maybe you want to reconsider.’ If that had leaked out, we would have really been crucified.
He’s right on his second point. If a Chelsea player did come forward with these kind allegations, the club never had a choice but to move forward and file an official complaint against Clattenburg. But while the John Terry case reached the courts, no one from Chelsea seemed to feel racist abuse against one of their players was important enough to follow through with the police investigation.
Maybe they don’t want to go to far against Calttenburg, but maybe they really have nothing to show, with even their two witnesses David Luiz and Ramires, not really 100% sure of what they heard.