Would Chelsea Gain Anything For Being 'Wronged'?

Without going into the stats, it is clear that most of the Goal.com readers thought that Chelsea have been wronged against FC Barcelona on Wednesday. Whether they are justified in saying this or not is a different matter altogether, but it is clear that the Premier League side have earned a good amount of sympathy from people in India as well as from people across the world.

Now, Chelsea are not really a big club. Okay, they are one of the Big Four in the Premier League and since the start of the Roman Abramovich era have grown in stature across the world as they have collected quite a number of fans, but Chelsea are not a 'traditionally' big club. Chelsea have won the league title in England only thrice in their history -two of them were under Jose Mourinho- and have reached the final of the UEFA Champions League only once and that was last season.

Yet for one reason or the other the London club have gained a lot of sympathy after what happened to them on Wednesday. At least one of the penalty appeals they made- that of Gerard Pique handling the ball inside the Barcelona penalty area- was a clear penalty.

Never mind that Thierry Henry was not given a penalty in the first-leg, never mind that Michael Ballack should have been sent off at Camp Nou, never mind that Eric Abidal should not have been sent off at Stamford Bridge, what matters now is that Chelsea were denied three or four penalties and that's why people are supporting them and are even going as far as to suggest that the presumably anti-Premier League UEFA president Michael Platini didn't want them to reach the final again and therefore conspired against them. Which is perhaps too naive but what is clear is that Chelsea have gained a lot of sympathy and support and have been perceived as 'victims'.

But is this going to benefit them?

Possibly yes. You see, people always foster affection for a team that is 'wronged' and for a side that is 'victimized'. Just like the underdogs, it is the victimized side in a match that gains sympathy and support from the neutrals, who then turned against the bigger sides.

What could now happen is that whenever Chelsea play, either in the Premier League or in the UEFA Champions League (next season), they will be 'supported' by the neutrals. Of course, this doesn't necessarily mean that all the Manchester United and Real Madrid supporters would become Chelsea 'converts' overnight- such an alteration is not going to happen- but what could happen is that the fans of these clubs could cheer for Chelsea whenever the Blues play, say, a Spanish side or Barcelona again.

Moreover, this Chelsea-Barcelona clash was seen as a Premier League versus La Liga battle. In this instance La Liga won but what many Premier League fans as well neutrals would believe is that La Liga can win only by 'buying the referee' or by conspiring with UEFA. Barcelona's good and attractive football would not mean anything to many of these fans as they would point out that Barcelona's silk was not good enough to break down a stingy and compactly organized Chelsea defence.

Which is only going to increase the rift between those who believe that the Premier League is the best domestic league in Europe and those who are convinced that La Liga is the best.

The fallout from midweek's hugely controversial match is only going to make football more intriguing and more debatable.

Subhankar Mondal