Less than 72 hours before a possible clash with Barcelona for the Champions League semi-final,Chelsea Interim boss Di Matteo and the management has been bitter about the fact that the FA slated Sunday 6pm for their FA cup semi-final clash with Tottenham Hotspurs despite knowing of the international clash coming in matter of days.
Di Matteo accuse the FA of not bothering to aid the Stamford Bridge club in terms of seeing to it as the only English club remaining in the competition they get to have time to prepare ahead of the Champions League.
With a possible win over Benfica in the return leg on Wednesday, Chelsea will be facing either AC Milan or Barcelona in the semi-final
Di Matteo said all discussion with the FA to see some sense in re-scheduling the FA tie has not yielded fruit as they are not considering it.
He said “They have their reasons and we have to respect them. We were not much involved in the decision making. Look at the other federations in Europe. They give their teams the best possible preparation, playing even before Saturdays rather than the day after whether European games are on Tuesdays or Wednesdays. It makes a big difference.
Chelsea, who had originally lobbied for the game to be played on the Friday, was yesterday still locked in talks, but the FA was adamant.
Meanwhile Di Matteo, whose team face Aston Villa today, has admitted five wins in seven games since taking interim charge after the exit of Andre Villas-Boas has confirmed his desire to return to management full-time.
