Chelsea have been charged with bringing the game into disrepute after their accusation that Swedish referee Anders Frisk met Barcelona coach Frank Rijkaard at halftime during the clubs' Champions League match earlier this month.

The club's chief executive Peter Kenyon said in a statement on Thursday: "Chelsea is both surprised and disappointed that at least one individual within UEFA appears to have launched an unprecedented attack on the club, regardless of the fact that Chelsea has co-operated fully with the enquiries related to the charges against us.

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"Chelsea fully adheres to, and respects, the processes of UEFA and is under no illusion about the seriousness of these charges. We will defend these in the correct and proper manner and within the guidelines laid down by UEFA.

"However the statements against Chelsea, Jose Mourinho, Steve Clarke, and Les Miles by at least one senior UEFA official means we are no longer able to keep our own counsel, which we have consistently done since submitting our report to UEFA following the Barcelona vs Chelsea first leg match.

"These various statements have called into question publicly the integrity of our manager, assistant coach, security officer and the club as a whole and we cannot allow these to stand unchallenged.

"Chelsea utterly refutes that the club, or any of its representatives, participated in a deliberate ploy of false declarations or lies in order to cynically influence the result of the tie, to put pressure on refereeing officials or poison the atmosphere between the teams. All statements in our report submitted to UEFA were made in good faith and are honestly held.

"Unfortunately some within UEFA have decided to ignore their own organisation's reputation for fairness and correct procedure by playing out this debate in the public arena ahead of any hearing.

"This hearing would have been, and still is, the right and proper forum for such debate."

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