{"id":540978,"date":"2026-03-16T22:04:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T22:04:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/540978\/"},"modified":"2026-03-16T22:04:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T22:04:07","slug":"chelsea-set-to-move-pre-match-huddle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/540978\/","title":{"rendered":"Chelsea set to move pre-match huddle"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Chelsea head coach Liam Rosenior says his players &#8220;don&#8217;t want to antagonise and bring more noise on ourselves&#8221; by conducting their pre-match huddle in the centre circle.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">It follows the unusual scene before Saturday 1-0 Premier League defeat by Newcastle when referee Paul Tierney was standing over the ball before kick-off but did not move away as the Chelsea players gathered around him for captain Reece James delivered his team talk.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Rosenior says a decision has not yet been made over where they will do the huddle for Tuesday&#8217;s Champions League match against Paris St-Germain but it is expected they will move its positioning from the centre circle.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">It is understood that the officials had warned Chelsea not to gather around the ball before kick-off because it risks a mass confrontation when the opponents are due to start the match.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">After the Newcastle match, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/sport\/articles\/c309eq98q5do\" class=\"ssrcss-18834jl-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Rosenior said Tierney should &#8220;focus on his job&#8221;<\/a> and said he would be speaking to his bosses at PGMOL (Professional Game Match Officials Limited), insisting his players had &#8220;respected the ball&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Speaking on Monday, Rosenior said discussion about the huddle had been &#8220;blown out of proportion&#8221; and was a &#8220;distraction for the media&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;The lads always wanted to show unity and togetherness: the lads will continue to do that,&#8221; he said before their Champions League last-16 match against Paris St-Germain on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;We don&#8217;t want to antagonise and bring the noise on ourselves. We will make a decision on where we do that tomorrow.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Rosenior said he had not yet spoken to the PGMOL but he had a meeting in person scheduled with them this week.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;The point of what I was saying after the game, it wasn&#8217;t about the huddle. It was about my perspective on certain decisions made in the game. It would be great to meet them and have an in-depth conversation with them,&#8221; he added.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The huddle was the brainchild of now-injured captain Reece James rather than Rosenior, who explained their purpose saying: &#8220;That is the best way I think I can get messages across to them.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Chelsea need to overcome a 5-2 deficit on Tuesday night after a late collapse away at PSG in the first-leg at Parc des Princes. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Speaking about the issue, PSG boss Luis Enrique said: &#8220;I was surprised when I saw it. But I heard Liam talk about it with maturity.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;We can see different things but if there is respect &#8211; and I think there is a respect from Chelsea players and staff &#8211; no problem at all.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Former Premier League assistant referee referee Darren Cann told BBC Sport he had never seen anything as strange &#8220;in 50 years of watching football&#8221; after seeing the incident on Saturday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">He was also able to shed some light on the incident, saying: &#8220;As it was Newcastle&#8217;s kick-off, the referee [took] control of the ball on the halfway line and was there to prevent any potential issues.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;When it is their kick-off, there is no particular issue. However, when their opponents have to kick off, there is potential for confrontation.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Chelsea head coach Liam Rosenior says his players &#8220;don&#8217;t want to antagonise and bring more noise on ourselves&#8221;&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":540979,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,561,82],"class_list":["post-540978","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/540978","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=540978"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/540978\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/540979"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=540978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=540978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=540978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}