Mikel calls for justice for the Chelsea three (and John Terry)

Chelsea midfielder John Obi Mikel feels that the three Chelsea players banned for the Champions League Final and eh, John Terry, should have their suspensions overturned.

Once they had come down from the highs of beating Barcelona and qualifying for the showpiece in Munich next month, the Blues had to face up to the harsh reality that they will be without four players through suspension, a fact that was rather rammed down the throat of one of that quartet - Branislav Ivanovic - by the heartless Geoff Shreeves.

Ivanovic, Ramires, Raul Meireles and John Terry will all miss out on the clash with either Real Madrid or Bayern Munich next month through suspension and Mikel feels that it just ain’t fair, dammit.

"Yes, the yellow cards should be cancelled going into a final and Uefa should look into that,” the Nigerian is quoted as saying in The Guardian.

"When you get to the final everyone wants to see the best players and it's a shame that JT, Ivanovic, Meireles and Ramires won't play. The JT one was soft from what I saw and it was a yellow card. I think Sanchez made the most of it.

"Alexis did the same to me as well. He got me yellow carded. There was a little touch and he rolled on the ground 10 times. He definitely made the most of it.

"The four players were devastated in the dressing room. They're happy for the team but are very disappointed to not be in the final. We will go out to win the trophy for them."

While the suspension of John Terry for an act of sheer stupidity elicits no sympathy whatsoever, one can’t help but feel a little sorry for the other Chelsea players, who, like Paul Scholes and Roy Keane in 1999, are set to miss out on the biggest game of their careers because of a fairly petty crime.

A system like the one that was brought in for the 2010 World Cup – where players who had picked up yellow cards were given a clean slate after the quarter-finals – seems a far fairer method than the one that currently exists in the Champions League, but a rule change would have to be proposed and wouldn’t come into effect until next season’s competition at the earliest.

As such, Ivanovic, Ramires and Meireles are just going to have to take their punishments on the chin, while Chelsea might be better off without Terry in Munich.

After all, Champions League Finals aren’t really his thing, are they?