Middlesbrough have branded Chelsea's aborted attempts to force their FA Cup quarter-final to be played behind closed doors as 'bizarre' while club chairman Steve Gibson has claimed the Blues are "fuelled by corrupt money".
Chelsea had asked for Middlesbrough supporters to be excluded from the Riverside for Saturday's FA clash between the two sides.
However, the west London club have this evening withdrawn the request, the FA confirmed in a statement.
An FA spokesperson said: "After constructive talks between the FA and Chelsea, the club has agreed to remove their request for the Emirates FA Cup quarter-final tie against Middlesbrough to be played behind closed doors.
"The FA remains in ongoing discussions with Chelsea, the Premier League and the Government to find a solution that would enable both Chelsea fans to attend games and away fans to attend Stamford Bridge, whilst ensuring sanctions are respected."
Chelsea are currently prohibited from selling tickets due to sanctions imposed on the club’s owner, Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich because of the Russian war on Ukraine.
Season ticket holders for Stamford Bridge and those who had already bought tickets are still permitted to use them but as the FA Cup clash and away games are outside of the season ticket benefits, no further tickets are being made available.
Reports claim that Chelsea had already sold "500-600 tickets" before the sanctions took hold.
The Blues had appealed to the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation to be allowed to sell their entire away ticket allocation for the clash with Middlesbrough but were unsuccessful in their efforts.
As a result they opted to take the extraordinary step of asking the FA to ban Middlesbrough’s supporters from their own ground for the clash, 'in the interests of fairness’.
Middlesbrough have already sold all of their available tickets for their home fixture and in a strongly worded statement, insisted they would resist any efforts keep their supporters out of the ground.
The statement read: "We are aware of Chelsea's request to have Saturday's Emirates FA Cup sixth round tie played behind closed doors and find their suggestion both bizarre and without any merit whatsoever.
"All concerned are well aware of the reasons Chelsea have been sanctioned and that this has nothing to do with Middlesbrough Football Club.
"To suggest as result that MFC and our fans should be penalised is not only grossly unfair but without any foundation.
"Given the reasons for these sanctions, for Chelsea to seek to invoke sporting "integrity" as reason for the game being played behind closed doors is ironic in the extreme.
"We currently await formal notification from the FA of the next steps but rest assured MFC will resist Chelsea's actions in the strongest terms.
Club chairman Steve Gibson went even further as he dismissed Chelsea's efforts as 'pathetic'.
Speaking to The Times, Gibson said: "I can't believe it. Sporting integrity and Chelsea do not belong in the same sentence. For 19 years corrupt money has fuelled Chelsea’s success.
"If they were to beat us in the FA Cup, with no fans there, what would that do to the integrity of the competition? Are they going to play all their Premier League games behind closed doors too? This is pathetic by Chelsea."
Meanwhile Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel has questioned Boris Johnson's "priorities" after the UK Prime Minister urged Chelsea fans to stop chanting for owner Abramovich.
Tuchel was left nonplussed by the intervention, amid Russia's continued war on Ukraine and also the Blues' uncertain future.
When quizzed on Johnson's call on Chelsea fans, Tuchel replied: "I just heard about it some minutes ago. I don't know if, in these times, if it is the most important discussion to have in Parliament.
"I don't know if fan chants being discussed in Parliament means that we have to worry about the priorities of this Government.
"But OK. Listen, no need to comment from me. We have really far more urgent things to discuss and handle.
"There are restrictions and we have to deal with it. There are adjustments in the amount of staff, who is travelling, how many rooms we have in hotels and how we arrive at matches."
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