EPL: Chelsea selection against Liverpool to be monitored
Chelsea’s team selection against Liverpool
on Sunday with sanctions still a
possibility if it is decided that Jose
Mourinho fields a side that is
provocatively short of experienced first-
team players.
The league’s competition rules have a
proviso under the category of “full-
strength teams”, rule L.19, that “in every
league match each participating club
shall field a full-strength team”. Although
the rule is no more detailed than that,
there is still scope for action.
If it was felt that Mourinho had picked a
side of players from his Under-21s list for
the game at Anfield then the Premier
League’s board could punish the club,
although the ultimate judgement would
likely be made by an independent
commission.
It is a delicate situation for the Premier
League, which has scope to act if it feels
that it needs to protect the integrity of
the competition, but would be required to
make a very difficult judgement on what
constituted a “weakened” side. The
Chelsea manager will hold a pre-match
press conference this lunchtime in which
he is expected to clarify his plans.
Mourinho said on Tuesday night that he
might have to play “the kids” against
Liverpool given the proximity of the
second leg of Chelsea’s Champions League
semi-final against Atletico Madrid on
Wednesday.
Atletico also play on Sunday with their
kick-off against Valencia, also a crucial
game in the title run-in, scheduled at
5pm Spanish time, two hours after the
game at Anfield begins.
Although the Premier League abolished
the weakened-teams rule that Blackpool
fell foul of in 2011, it still has the remit
to punish Chelsea should it see fit.
Whether it would be prepared to take
that battle on is another matter.
Mourinho is already on his third Football
Association charge of the season, this time
for what the governing body considers an
attack on the integrity of the referees’
chief Mike Riley, head of the Professional
Game Match Officials organisation.
The Chelsea captain John Terry is still
hoping to be fit to face Atletico in the
second leg on Wednesday having had to
come off in the first leg with an ankle
injury.
Midfielder Ramires will miss the rest of
the league season after being handed a
four-match ban by the FA for elbowing
Sunderland’s Sebastian Larsson.
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