Chelsea conduct to be probed

The Football Association and Premier League have agreed to conduct a joint inquiry into allegations made by Leeds United against Chelsea.

The FA said on its Web site on Wednesday that the inquiry "will look into the alleged conduct of Chelsea FC in relation to three Leeds United academy players last season.

Leeds chairman Ken Bates reported his former club Chelsea to the FA on August 2 over alleged illegal approaches to players.

Bates, who sold Chelsea to Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich in 2003, said the English champions made illegal approaches to Tom Taiwo and Michael Wood and when attempting to sign Daniel Rose from the second division club.

Bates said at the time: "We have considerable and great weight of evidence to demonstrate quite clearly, without a shadow of doubt, that Chelsea behaved consistently aggressively in stealing these two players from Leeds United.

"It is not a question of punishing Chelsea for this latest breach. It is a question of stopping them doing it in the future," he added.

The inquiry will be carried out by both the FA and Premier League because the allegations relate to FA and FAPL rules.

BATES COMMENTS

The FA said it was also separately considering a complaint by Chelsea against Bates regarding public comments made about the London club's directors and management.

Chelsea have said their former owner brought the game into disrepute by making "rude, insulting and inappropriate comments" when accusing the club of making illegal approaches to players.

Chelsea's statement on August 17 added that Bates had made a reference to the club's directors that was "discriminatory... in terms of race, nationality and religion".

"Such comments have no place in football, a sport which is rightly committed to fighting racial intolerance and bigotry," the statement added.

Chelsea were fined 300,000 pounds in June 2005 and handed a suspended three-point deduction by the Premier League following an investigation into claims they had 'tapped up' Arsenal defender Ashley Cole.

Cole and Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho were fined 75,000 pounds each for their part in the affair.