Charlton Athletic has written to the Premier League in search of a replay of Saturday's 4-1 defeat to Chelsea, after the game was played on a sand covered Stamford Bridge pitch.
In their submission to the Premier League, Charlton complain that not only were they not informed that the match would be played on an 'artificial surface', but they were not given the oppertunity to test the surface unlike Chelsea, who trained on the pitch.
A statement on the Charlton website read "We were not offered an opportunity for our players to train on the artificial surface to judge the effect of the bounce of the ball, which in our opinion video evidence will show was different to a normal grass surface, and to make decisions on the appropriate footwear to be worn."
"Chelsea officials advise us that the Chelsea players trained on the pitch on Thursday and Friday of last week, and at last Saturday's match the footwear worn by their players was appropriate for an artificial surface. Evidence on this point has been submitted to the FA Premier League."
The statement continued "The footwear worn by some of our players was not appropriate for the surface and again we will refer to video evidence on this point. Three of our officials were advised by the appropriate Chelsea official that the surface we played on last Saturday was the base on which their new pitch would directly be laid on Monday and Tuesday, January 13th and 14th. We have submitted photographic evidence on this point to the FA Premier League and are making available relevant video evidence."
Filed by Rob Wright
