All this talk of conspiracies and fixing by UEFA to prevent 2 english sides in the final is farcial. Not fix could allow Iniesta to cream one into the top corner two minutes into injury time. To quote the great Ivorian, "its a ****ing disgrace"

If it was a conspiracy, then sending off a Barca player to throw us off the trail was a stroke of total genius

quite. there is bitter, then there is BITTER. for cryin out loud, they may have been the victim of some dodgy reffing over penalty decisions, but show me a match when this does not take place, week in week out.

good grief, platini ordering a win, security fears over rome, do some chelsea fans actually believe this rubbish. another 10 sec and chelsea would have WON, cutting it a bit close weren't 'THEY'

I'm still thinking that penalty Cardiff had against Swansea was a fix

I'm gonna play devil's advocate here. Just supposing it had been decided to 'fix' things. You'd need the co-operation of Chelsea or some of their players. For a match like this you're not going to get it. A bribe won't work.

You can't involve lots of people, that would be too risky. But it's quite well known that the "popular choice" for the final would be Barcelona. It's also well known that Blatter and Platini have been all but running a campaign against EPL clubs. Is it beyond the realms of possibility that a referee might think he could advance his career by helping to bring about what Platini wants? The best refs will still get the big matches so maybe they won't play ball.

But there are other refs on the fringes of the major tournaments. What about a ref who was at a tournament before but wasn't quite up to scratch? He could see this as a way back; please messrs Platini and Blatter and he could be back in contention for World Cups and European Championships.

Hmmm...who might such a ref be? Step forward Mr Tom Henning Ovrebo. After officiating in his first tournament (Euro 2008) he was considered to have done so badly that he was withdrawn. He's on the provisional list for the next world cup.

Perfect. He'll do. But how can he influence the game? He can't simply give an undeserved penalty; that would be too obvious. And the player might shoot wide.

What he can do, though is to create some circumstances that give the favoured team the best opportunity. Like denying several penalty opportunities...but not just refusing them point blank, that might look dodgy. So for a foul clearly inside the box, award a free kick instead, for some mild contact outside the box. It doesn't matter that, later, contact far more of a foul than that is made on Drogba; no one likes the diver anyway. The fact that he crumples after being pulled back is evidence of that. And when a defender sticks an arm out to reduce the chance of the ball getting past, it's easy to claim accidental contact.

But to make your refereeing look even handed you need to be seen to do something major against the other team. Hmmmm...what can that be? Can't deny them a penalty (if they were actually capable of getting that close to goal with the ball) as that would be risky.

Got it They've hugely dominated possession in both games. What if you could dismiss a defender? One who doesn't offer much in attack like Alves. That would seem really dramatic, reducing them to ten men while it would hardly impact negatively on them at all. Oh look...that guy just gave the perfect opportunity. And the icing on the cake is that it looks really unjust because it might have been an accident or maybe there wasn't even a touch. It couldn't be better.

Now you've denied Chelsea the chance of at least two goals on top of the lead they already had while looking equally cruel but not damaging Barcelona's chances. Now it's up to Barca to play their part. Which they eventually do.

That's it. I don't believe it for a second of course. But if it was going to be done, this is the way it could happen.

One reason for not believing it is that Abidal has been reported as admitting he did deliberately foul Anelka, knowing he'd get a red card and saying it was worth it for the team.

^^ You are Declan Hill and I claim my $5.

<you can put it on Barca in the final for me (wink,wink)>

To my shame I had never heard of this bloke. Is the book any good?

Hilarious, if you like that sort of thing!

Well put. He and Dan Brown should get married.

Not this one but it gives us something to moan about(makes the day go quicker)

Fixtures remaining:

Newcastle v Middlesbrough

Bolton v Hull
Middlesbrough v Aston Villa
Newcastle v Fulham

West Brom v Liverpool

Portsmouth v Sunderland

Aston Villa v Newcastle
Blackburn v West Brom
Hull v Man Utd
Sunderland v Chelsea
west Ham v Middlesbrough

Current standings:

Sunderland..Pl 36..Pts..36.............GD -17
Hull............Pl 36..Pts..34.............GD -24
------------------------------------------
Newcastle...Pl 35..Pts..31.............GD -19
Middlesbro...Pl 35..Pts..31.............GD -26
West Brom...Pl 36..Pts..31.............GD -29



Nail biting, Monday is very important

No pressure, eh?

What's your forecast for the bottom 3 positions Novo?

Pessimistic, in a word.

I'd be the same, especially with WBA making a late bid.