Chelsea face massive fine .. Mail on Sunday

by BOB CASS
Champions-elect Chelsea will be hit by a record ?200,000 fine over the Ashley Cole tapping-up controversy but will escape any deduction of Premiership points.
After seeing off Fulham 3-1 yesterday, Jose Mourinho's men can land their first title for 50 years tomorrow night if Arsenal fail to beat Tottenham at Highbury.

But while the Premier League plan to hand Chelsea a huge fine - 10 times the previous record for the offence - they will not deduct points from them because they believe the club have given a faithful account of their role in the alleged meeting between Cole, Mourinho and chief executive Peter Kenyon at London's Royal Park Hotel in January.

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A three-man disciplinary commission, headed by a former High Court judge, the Rt Hon Sir Philip Otton, will meet on May 17 and 18 for the official inquiry.
Chelsea and their head coach have been charged with making an illegal approach for Cole, and the England left back has himself been charged with making an illegal approach to Chelsea.

Sir Philip will be joined by former Football League secretary David Dent and Malcolm George, a former assistant chief constable, who was on the panel that fined Liverpool a then-record ?20,000 for an illegal approach to Middlesbrough for defender Christian Ziege.

The punishment is, of course, merely loose change for billionaire owner Roman Abramovich, but it is yet another black mark in a season when Chelsea have won more enemies than friends.

Mourinho, who was suspended by UEFA over comments during the Champions League tie against Barcelona, admitted on Friday that he had been wrong to court so much controversy.

He came under more pressure when UEFA insisted those comments had led to the retirement of referee Anders Frisk. Chief executive Lars Christer Olsson said Mourinho and other European managers were out of control and would be reined in under radical new guidelines next season.

"Coaches have a responsibility for what they say," said Olsson. "In the case of Mourinho, I now think there could well have been a link between what was said and the decision of Anders Frisk to stop refereeing.

"I admit we have had some statements on both sides that have been unfortunate. But with Mourinho, the public perception is that coaches can do what they like. I think they have to be taught and schooled by their own clubs.

"Some clubs allow their coaches to get away with too much. We have to convince them to educate their coaches. It's not the coach who should be a spokesman for the club, that's the role of chairmen or chief executives. They have to bring things back into order."

Olsson admitted that fines for clubs as wealthy as Chelsea were no longer enough. "They were a strong instrument before, but one of our tasks now is to introduce other consequences," he said.