LONDON — The most scrutinized person during Wednesday’s Champions League semifinal between Barcelona and Chelsea may not be Lionel Messi. Or the defenders assigned the often futile task of denying him a goal.
Instead, the person facing perhaps the most rigorous inspection in this caustic rivalry will be the referee, Felix Brych, 36, a German with a doctorate in law and, if he is lucky, an advanced degree in thick skin.
English soccer is roiling with disputed refereeing decisions of late. And Chelsea fans are not the best-behaved citizens. A rude and insensitive minority at an F.A. Cup match Sunday disrupted a moment of silence that commemorated the 23rd anniversary of the deaths of 96 Liverpool fans in a stadium crush known as the Hillsborough disaster.
Now comes Wednesday’s Champions League match, which will bring a certain wariness along with anticipation at Stamford Bridge, Chelsea’s stadium in southwest London.
Chelsea fans displayed abusive behavior toward the referees after two volatile and widely publicized Champions League episodes involving Barcelona in 2005 and 2009. Chelsea forward Didier Drogba, defender José Bosingwa and then-managers José Mourinho and Guus Hiddink added kindling to the bonfire of insult. One referee ended his career days later. Fan abuse of the other referee continues today. Brych may have the loneliest and most perilous assignment in international soccer.
On Feb. 23, 2005, a highly regarded Swedish referee, Anders Frisk, sent off Drogba in the 56th minute after a challenge on Barcelona goalkeeper Victor Valdes. After Barcelona won, 2-1, at home at Camp Nou, the impetuous Mourinho hinted of conspiracy. He accused Frisk of meeting at halftime with Frank Rijkaard, Barcelona’s manager at the time.
Frisk told UEFA, soccer’s European governing body, that Rijkaard had not gone into his dressing room. The referee said he had, in fact, rebuffed Rijkaard’s effort to speak to him during intermission, telling him it was neither the time nor place.
UEFA handed a two-game suspension to Mourinho, now at Real Madrid. The chief of UEFA’s referee committee called him an “enemy of football.”
Chelsea won the second leg of that series, advancing to the 2005 Champions League quarterfinals, but Frisk had had enough. Six months before that Chelsea match, he had been hit in the head with an object and left bleeding while refereeing a Champions League match between Roma and Dynamo Kiev. That match had been halted. And now, so had Frisk’s career.
Two weeks after the Chelsea episode, Frisk retired from refereeing at 42 to become a fulltime insurance agent, saying he felt like a “hunted animal” and could not put up with death threats from Chelsea supporters.
“I have been subjected to things that I couldn’t even imagine,” Frisk said at the time. “I love to referee and I have done it since 1978, but what has happened to me means it is not worth continuing. I won’t ever go out on a football pitch again. I am too scared. It is not worth it.”
Frisk declined a request for an interview. But he was not the only referee with such concerns. On May 6, 2009, Tom Henning Ovrebo of Norway presided over the second leg of a Chelsea-Barcelona Champions League semifinal at Stamford Bridge. Three minutes into added time, midfielder Andres Iniesta put a brilliant shot into the upper left corner of the net. With a 1-1 draw, and Iniesta’s tiebreaking away goal, Barcelona advanced to the final, which it would win over Manchester United.
Incensed, Drogba launched a vulgar tirade at the referee, caught on television, calling Ovrebo a disgrace. Bosingwa compared the referee to a thief. Drogba later received a four-match suspension for his outburst; Bosingwa received a three-game ban. Hiddink accused Ovrebo of missing three or four penalty kicks that should have been awarded to his team, adding that it was “worst refereeing performance I’ve ever seen.”
Graham Poll, a former top English referee, said after the match that Ovrebo had to switch hotel rooms in London for his safety and was later smuggled out of the country under police escort. His address was made public and, according to news accounts, there were Internet threats to have Ovrebo hunted and killed.
Earlier this month, Ovrebo, 45, a psychologist who no longer referees international soccer, told The Guardian of London that he still receives abusive e-mails each year from Chelsea fans.
“It is not nice but nothing too serious, either,” Ovrebo said.
At Real Madrid, Mourinho still insists that Barcelona receives favoritism from the referees. But Roberto Di Matteo, Chelsea’s current manager, would not be drawn into such inflammable debate Tuesday. After all, Chelsea beat Napoli in the Champions League’s Round of 16 with Brych as the referee.
In fact, Chelsea has won nine matches, lost only two and tied one since Di Matteo took over last month. It is a confident team that historically has disrupted Barcelona with its direct, powerful style. Messi has not scored in six matches against the Blues.
“I believe the referee is going to have a good game,” DiMatteo said diplomatically. “I have no fear that there is going to be anything in the back of his mind.”
Even if Chelsea’s fans cannot remain calm and disciplined, its players must be, midfielder Frank Lampard said. In 10 meetings, Chelsea’s three losses to Barcelona came when it had a player sent off.
“Keeping 11 players on the field is absolutely crucial,” Lampard said.