Poll is not Cech's mate

Last updated : 14 December 2004 By Paul Lagan

Petr Cech has stoked up the heat between Chelsea and referee Graham Poll by alleging that he (the ref) promised to whistle before the controversial free-kick by Thierry Henry on Sunday.
Henry scored to give Arsenal a 2-1 lead before being pegged back by the Blues in a 2-2 thriller.
Writing on his personal website at www.idnes.cz, Cech insists that Eidur Gudjohnsen was told he would whistle: "Eidur Gudjohnsen stood in front of the goal," said Cech.
"He asked the referee three times if he would whistle for the kick.
"He was told to go away but was assured the referee would whistle."
Cech then added: "Maybe he is a supporter of Arsenal. Or maybe he just had a black-out, it is difficult to explain.
"But even if we did protest, he would just say that he did not promise any whistle.
"What would it be good for? But he must have an uneasy conscience."

The bods at the FA are sure to be looking at the comments as they may want to charge Cech with bringing the game into disrepute.

I hope they do bring the charge in, because then The FA will have to investigate the facts fully.
It will be interesting to put a lip reader onto the case to examine the TV coverage - then we can get to the bottom of the incident once and for all.