UEFA won't rush Chelsea decision

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Chelsea went out of the competition after an injury-time equalizer gave Barcelona a 1-1 draw. Drogba, Ballack and several other players confronted Norwegian referee Tom Henning Ovrebo after the final whistle, angry over the fact that he waved off several penalty appeals.

Ballack had chased after the referee when he turned down a handball in the final minutes, and Drogba went up to Ovrebo after the game in a finger-waving outburst, having to be pulled away by security staff and Chelsea coach Guus Hiddink.

UEFA general secretary David Taylor said the players' behavior was a blow to the campaign launched before the start of season to encourage stars to show more respect to the referees.
He said he expected UEFA disciplinary officials to take some action, but did not want speculate what that would be.

"We expect to take action, but we have to collect all the evidence before we can do so," Taylor told BBC Radio. "It was not pleasant to see, not the sort of example one wants. UEFA has a respect campaign and this just flies in the face of these worthy endeavors."

Any misconduct charges are likely to result in fines and suspensions, but Taylor said UEFA would bide its time before deciding what action to take.

"They look at all the evidence, including video evidence, the objective and subjective factors, the mitigating circumstances - if any - before they come to some judgment," he said. "You can speculate, will somebody get this sentence or that sentence? It's pure speculation.

"At the moment I'm not going to confirm whether it's Drogba, Ballack, Chelsea, all three or others. These are the things we're looking at this weekend. It could be a number of weeks yet before such a decision will be made."