Chelsea star Marc Cucurella accuses Premier League referee Paul Tierney of ‘lacking respect’

View 2 Images

Chelsea defender Marc Cucurella has accused referee Paul Tierney of a ‘lack of respect’ for his part in the pre-match huddle incident that made headlines. Ahead of the game against Newcastle United, Tierney found himself in the middle of Chelsea ’s team huddle.

The Blues players huddled together around the centre spot, only to find Tierney standing in the middle. They appeared to carry on regardless, with him only freed when the huddle broke up.

The incident led to the Chelsea huddle being booed by Everton fans in their next Premier League game. The pre-match huddle was also heavily criticised by pundit Gary Neville .

Cucurella has now broken his silence on the situation and has criticised referee Tierney for his part. In an interview with The Athletic , he said, "I prefer not to speak. To me, it was a lack of respect.

“He could have come and told us, 'Look, you cannot do that for this reason'. But instead, he came and stayed in the middle.

“I don't want to speak more about it, honestly. I did not understand it. I believed he wanted to have his moment."

FOLLOW OUR CHELSEA FB PAGE! Latest Blues news and more on our dedicated Facebook page

Cucurella’s comments seem to reflect those of manager Liam Rosenior , who revealed that he was planning on holding talks with the PGMOL about the incident.

"My players made the decision that they wanted to be around the ball, to respect the ball and show unity and leadership,” he said. “That is not my decision. That was a decision between the leadership group and the team.

"There is nothing that they're doing with that huddle that is disrespectful to the opposition. We had a meeting with the referee, my assistant goes in, the first thing he talks about is our huddle.”

View 2 Images

When asked if he’d spoken to Tierney after the game, he said: "I didn't speak to Paul today or his officials. I thought it wasn't the right thing to do today. But I'll be speaking to PGMOL.

"I'll be speaking to the refs and just trying to get an understanding of why that happened today. We were told in the rule book it's about timing. You can be where you want on timing.