“I am not happy… you cannot allow it” – Maresca rages at UEFA decision which hurts his team | OneFootball

Enzo Maresca is taking his press conference for next week’s Conference League final against Real Betis in Wroclaw, and the Chelsea boss was forced to rail against some of the scheduling which is going to benefit his opposition.

Betis given boost by La Liga scheduling

A Legia Warsaw banner showing UEFA as greedy pigs.

Chelsea play their final league game of the season on Sunday at 4pm, kicking off simultaneously with the rest of the Premier League. They have a huge amount riding on their game against Nottingham Forest, knowing that the result will decide whether they make it into the Champions League for next season.

Betis, on the other hand, have just had their final game of the season moved back to Friday night, giving them 48 hours extra rest before the European final next Wednesday. It’s a dead rubber for them and for their opposition Valencia too, so they can rotate as much as they like.

That is a pretty significant advantage, and Maresca wasn’t happy about it:

“I am not happy, 100%. You cannot allow a team 48 hours [more rest] when we play in a European final,” the coach admitted.

Maresca says UEFA need to sort unfair rules

Later on he was pressed further for this thoughts on the situation:

“I don’t know if it’s La Liga or UEFA [who should decide]. If I ask you if it is normal to play a final where the team has 48 hours more, it’s not normal.”

That’s the issue though – obviously La Liga want to benefit their team in the final, and you can’t really tell them not to. Either the Premier League need to help out their teams in the same way (and they’re not going to damage their product for that sake) or UEFA need to introduce a blanket rule.

Given the budget disparity between Chelsea and every other team they’ve faced in this competition (including Betis), we’d advise Maresca to not use this as an excuse should things go wrong.