Thursday 12 March 2009

UEFA to probe Drogba abuse claims in Turin?

The Ivory Coast international was allegedly the victim of 'monkey chants' from a small section of the crowd as Juventus drew 2-2 with Chelsea on Tuesday night; and, although the case has yet to be proven, Chelsea would be happy for Uefa to look into the allegations.

"Our record against fighting racism is clear," a Blues spokesman said in The Sun. "At this stage, we do not have sufficient evidence to back up these claims.

"It would be up to Uefa to investigate them and we would do everything in our power to assist them."

Uefa is waiting on reports from the referee and their delegate at the game before deciding whether to take any further action.

"If what is alleged is true, there will be an investigation," said Uefa director of communications William Gaillard.

Meanwhile, Frank Lampard has revealed that Chelsea are aiming to draw any club other than Liverpool in the Champions League quarter-finals, after the two clubs have met regularly in the competition during recent campaigns.

"Maybe Liverpool won't want to play us, but to be honest we are all a little bit fed up with that one," Lampard is quoted as saying in The Daily Mail. "If fate says it should happen then so be it but I think we would all be happy to avoid it.

"When you look around at who is left in the competition there is not one team you would say you fancy playing. We know that whoever we get in the draw will be strong and we will have to perform to go through."

Arsenal and Manchester United joined Liverpool and Chelsea in the quarter-finals of the competition and Lampard believes English clubs are amongst the strongest in Europe at present.

"We should be proud to go through, but people perhaps don't give English teams the praise they deserve," he explained. "If you ask Italian and Spanish sides, they respect our game and the style of it, with our pace and our passion. They find it hard to handle.

"There was probably a time a few years ago when English teams were a bit more naive when we played the likes of Juventus and that was why we didn't always have success.

"Now there is much more tactical awareness. It is not all about being strong and having tempo. It is about being clever with the way the team plays. It is clear all English sides now have those qualities. You can see that from the results we have had in the last five years.'

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