Innocent until proven guilty may be the old adage but it will be interesting to see how Didier Drogba and Jose Bosingwa defend themselves against UEFA action.

Both have now been charged by the governing body after Chelsea lost their Champions League semi-final to Barcelona.

The disciplinary action claims they insulted the referee and made offensive comments. Chelsea have also been charged with the improper conduct of their players and failing to control supporters who were allegedly involved in missile throwing.

Drogba and Bosingwa were both caught on camera venting their frustration as the final whistle blew on the second leg of the semi-final at Stamford Bridge. Chelsea had gone out to a late strike by Andres Iniesta to make it 1-1 and giving Barcelona the edge with their away goal.

The angry scenes were watched by millions of viewers throughout the world as Norwegian referee Tom Henning Ovrebo became the target after not granting Chelsea a penalty in a number of calls.

What defence can Drogba and Bosingwa possible put forward? Mitigation, yes, but it’s unlikely that either will get away without a very stiff fine or even worse.

What rankles many is why the team itself has to carry the can. Is it really possible for any football manager or the board to control the tempers of their players, especially if it is a first-time incident? Yes, they can give lectures and warnings and hit home the severe repercussions of not behaving but it’s just not possible to put players in straight jackets.

Players should carry the can for their behaviour, on or off the pitch, but leave the club alone. In the same theme, how on earth can a team be responsible for the behaviour of fans? Did they ask them to get involved or to throw missiles at the referee? Do the authorities really expect every club to be accountable for every fan?

On the whole, football supporters are a pretty decent lot but you are always going to get the bad egg whose temper boils over. It’s those fans who should be pinpointed and dealt with very severely. Ban them for life but don’t punish the club.

Meantime, Arsenal captain Cesc Fabregas has been cleared by the FA following allegations about his conduct after the Hull FA Cup tie.
It was claimed that he spat at Hull assistant Brian Horton. An independent commission found there was not enough evidence of improper conduct.

UEFA has started disciplinary action against Chelsea following the club’s actions at the end of their Champions League semi-final against Barcelona a couple of weeks ago.

It appears that the club, along with players Jose Bosingwa and Didier Drogba, will have to answer for their behaviour after the match on May 6th, and will then be dealt with on June 17th.

For anybody who’s not familiar with the events, Chelsea went tumbling out of the Champions League after Barcelona scored in injury time on their only shot of the game to go through to the finals on the away goals rule. Neither team was happy with Norwegian referee Tom Henning Ovrebo, who was brutal throughout the match. Ovrebo sent off Barcelona’s Eric Abidal and then proceeded to turned away several legitimate penalty claims from Chelsea, including a handball in the box on the last kick of the game.

The players’ frustration got them better of them understandably when the final whistle blew as they surrounded Ovrebo to argue and Drogba swore into the television cameras to say Ovrebo’s performance was a disgrace.

Bosingwa was charged because after the game he said: ”I don’t know if he’s a referee or a thief. I don’t have any words to describe that man that was on the pitch. We have nothing against Barcelona’s goal but the penalties that he didn’t give us and his way of managing the game weren’t right at all. This referee should never referee a game again. What happened was a disgrace. It was a well contested game but the referee came to spoil our game,”

Bosingwa retracted those comments the next day though.

Drogba might be suspended for about five games for telling the truth, will probably be handed a stiff fine. The club itself will also face a substantial financial penalty.

In other Chelsea news, England midfielder Frank Lampard has become the first Chelsea player to win the club’s Player of the Year award for a third time. Lampard also won it in 2004 and 2005. Michael Essien’s left-foot volley at home to Barcelona in the Champions League semi-final, was voted Chelsea’s Goal of the Season by supporters.

England left-back Ashley Cole won the Samsung Players’ Player of the Year. The Young Player of the Year award was presented to English youngster Michael Mancienne, who turned 21 and made his Chelsea first-team debut this season. Mancienne’s a defender and an England Under-21 regular. He also received a call-up to the senior squad during the season.

Back to the  disciplinary front, the English  Football Association said that Arsenal captain Cesc Fabregas won’t face  any action over an alleged of spitting incident where Hull City’s assistant manager Brian Horton was supposedly spat at following an FA Cup tie with Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium on March 17.

Fabregas was injured for the match, but joined his team mates on the pitch at the final whistle. Hull manager Phil Brown accused him of spitting during a TV interview after the game. Fabregas denied the incident and the FA have let it drop as there is no evidence that it ever took place.

In off field news, Everton has signed defenders Phil Jagielka and Joseph Yobo to new five-year contracts with the club.

Manchester City winger Shaun Wright-Phillips will miss England’s World Cup qualifying games against Kazakhstan, and Andorra on June 6th and 10th due to a knee injury. Middlesbrough’s Stewart Downing will also miss the games as he’s out for the next three months because of a foot operation. Goalkeeper David James of Portsmouth is also out of action for the games.

Another huge English Premier League weekend kicks off on Saturday (April 25th) with the biggest games being league leaders Manchester United taking on ninth-place Tottenham Hotspur at old Trafford. Liverpool will be hoping United slip up while they travel over to 16th place Hull, who are only three points above the relegation zone. Liverpool will again be without their injury-prone skipper Steven Gerrard. Third-place Chelsea, who seem to be out of the title race now, will visit seventh-place West Ham in a London derby.

At the other end of the table, last place West Brom are at home to 16th spot Sunderland, second-last Newcastle, who are fighting to survive in the EPL take on 14th place Portsmouth in a huge match on Monday, 18th place Middlesbrough will have their hands full in London when they play Arsenal on Sunday, and 17th place Blackburn will try to keep afloat by taking on 11th place Wigan in Manchester.

There’s quite a bit of news of the pitch in England too as Chelsea’s John Mikel Obi has been banned from driving for 15 months for drinking and driving. The 21-year-old was stopped in London on Jan. 24th. His teammate Frank Lampard got into a heated on-air argument with a radio DJ as Lampard was being criticized on air about his personal life. Lampard phoned the station and went at it with the DJ in a 15-minute rant.

Arsenal captain Cesc Fabregas has been charged with improper conduct by the FA over a spitting incident during a fifth round FA Cup tie with hull at the Emirates Stadium on March 17th. Fabregas allegedly spit at Hull’s assistant manager Brian Horton after the game in which Fabregas didn’t even dress for. Hull manager Phil Brown was also charged for his tirade at referee mike riley in the same game. Brown and Fabregas have until May 12 to respond to the charges.

The pitch at Wembley is to be dug up again and replaced after the sorry state it was in for last weekend’s FA Cup semi finals. The multi-purpose venue hasn’t had a good pitch since it opened two years ago, so a different type of turf will be used this time to see if it does the trick.

Over in Italy, Inter Milan striker Adriano got his wish as the club ripped up his contract. Brazilian international Adriano failed to return to Italy after a World Cup qualifier for Brazil earlier this month and the 27-year-old, who has suffered personal problems in the last few years said he wanted to take a break from football.

In France, Marseille captain Lorik Cana received a one-game ban after being sent off following a battle with Lorient’s Arnaud Le Lan in last weekend’s Ligue 1 match. The two players went at it on the pitch after arguing over a throw-in in the 88th minute of the game. Cana will now miss the league leader’s visit to Lille on Sunday.

In Spain seventh-place Atletico Madrid’s European hopes for next season were damaged yesterday (April 23rd) as they were hammered 5-1 at Racing Santander in the Primera Division.