Chelsea players who reported Mark Clattenburg’s alleged racial remarks during Sunday’s game against Manchester United may have misheard his Geordie accent, the Daily Mirror suggest.
Brazilians Ramires and David Luiz are said to have alleged that the match official told John Obi Mikel: “Shut up, monkey”.
But it is claimed Chelsea officials and players questioned whether they were confused by his accent and he actually said: “Shut up, Mikel”.
It is also claimed that club insiders admit their case is further confused because Ramires speaks very limited English.
A source is quoted as saying: “The players stand by what they heard but there is a growing concern that a genuine mistake has been made because of the language barrier.”
Clattenburg denies any wrongdoing and has said he will cooperate with an FA investigation.
The Mirror also report that Chelsea are competing with Manchester City and Bayern Munich for the signing of highly-rated Ukrainian keeper Igor Berezovsky, who plays for Obolon Kiev.
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This post was last modified on 02/11/2012