Roberto Di Matteo insists the Football Association has shown a lack of commonsense by refusing to bring Chelsea’s FA Cup semi-final against Tottenham forward.
The Blues are unhappy that they must play the game at 6pm next Sunday – three days before the first leg of their Champions League tie against Barcelona.
Di Matteo believes the FA have handed Barca an advantage by rejecting his club’s pleas for the Spurs match to take place earlier.
The Chelsea interim boss said: “I’m very disappointed that commonsense hasn’t prevailed.
“Obviously, they didn’t take into consideration anything we said. Barca will have one more day to recover than us and it might give them a little advantage.”
Barca may also enjoy an advantage ahead of the second leg at the Camp Nou if the Spanish football authorities agree to bring forward their clash with Real Madrid, which is currently scheduled for 22 April.
“Other federations are very helpful. The English federation hasn’t seemed very helpful in our case,” Di Matteo added.
See also: Chelsea boss pledges to find strategy to upset Barcelona
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This post was last modified on 07/04/2012
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It does not surprise anyone, in fact it could be worse. FA see as a Russian team than English, it is a fact I have observed. I wish there was no John Terry. FA enemy no 1. The more Chelsea progress the more enemy they make, I am not suprised at all.