Cast your mind back to November, and you may remember a thrilling 4-4 draw between Chelsea and Ajax in the Champions League.
With both sides looking to secure qualification from the group, Stamford Bridge was given a night to remember with a 4-4 display full of exciting football and plenty of controversy.
One of the significant controversies was the performance of referee Gianluca Rocchi, with many, Ajax included, questioning his display and then some.
His erratic performance was highlighted by a 60-second display that saw him incorrectly allow a play on, which led to a penalty for Chelsea and a red card for Ajax, as well as a yellow for the original foul in the build-up.
This penalty started the dramatic comeback for the Blues, who secured themselves a point and consequently blocked Ajax from reaching the last round.
The Dutch side were less than pleased, and, despite several months passing, are still unhappy about Rocci’s performance.
That anger has now built into something of an issue, with De Telegraaf reporting that a recent ‘winter meeting’ for UEFA’s referees in Spain has stirred things up.
During the meeting, it was acknowledged that Rocchi’s ‘arbitrary blunders’ had cost Ajax the victory and subsequently, their place in the next round of the Champions League.
While backing most of the referee’s decisions, they acknowledged that in the passage of play that led to the penalty, he should have stopped the game before, thus stopping the penalty and the subsequent red card for Joel Veltman.
This confirmed Ajax’s suspicions and what they believe was a ‘theft’ at Stamford Bridge. The contact UEFA with a letter asking about this was answered ‘evasively’ by UEFA.
Ajax themselves are not pushing the issue, with Edwin Van der Saar calling that “a hopeless and therefore pointless mission.”
De Telegraaf, though, argue that Ajax have already missed out on €9.5m from failing to qualify for the last 16, never mind the €1.8m they would have gotten for beating Chelsea and potential earnings for reaching later rounds and the ‘skyrocketing market values’ of their players.
It’s something their former player Sjaak Swart agrees with, calling for UEFA to hand out compensation to make up for Rocchi’s mistakes.
“Ajax is missing at least ten million euros, so financial compensation seems to me to be in order,” he said.
“It’s really scandalous what happened there at Stamford Bridge. That referee was terrible.
“He was not a little bit but very confused. That arbitration… Even with the VAR, those referees can’t do it.”
That compensation is unlikely to be forthcoming, though, with the newspaper even acknowledging that Ajax still could have qualified had they beat Valencia in their final game. Instead, they lost 1-0.
That left them in the Europa League, looking at what might have been, with this meeting last week only helping to ‘throw salt in the Amsterdam wound’.
