Conspiracy theorists who share Jose Mourinho's belief that Barcelona's recent success in the Champions League has come with a helping hand from Uefa will feel they have extra ammunition after Erzik Senes, vice-president of Uefa's referees committee, picked fellow Turk Cuneyt Cakir to referee Chelsea's second leg tonight.
Erzik is a former Unicef employee and Mourinho, the Real Madrid coach, famously suggested Barcelona were favoured by Uefa because of their sponsorship of Unicef in a post-match rant last season, after Pepe had been sent off in the Champions League semi-final first leg which Barça won 2-0.
Barcelona renewed their sponsorship of Unicef by signing a one-year deal last May and will carry the organisation's logo on their shirts against Chelsea. Erzik is vice- president of Uefa's referee's committee but also worked as a project manager for Unicef.
Add to that the fact that one of FC Barcelona's sponsors is 'Turkish Airlines' and a picture starts to emerge.
We can but hope that history doesn't keep on repeating itself.
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