Uefa accuse Didier Drogba of undermining Respect campaign

David Taylor, the general secretary of Uefa, has accused Didier Drogba of undermining the Respect campaign by his actions in the wake of Wednesday's Champions League semi-final defeat by Barcelona.

Drogba, the Ivory Coast striker, has apologised for confronting referee Tom Henning Ovrebo after the 1-1 draw with Barcelona and launching a foul-mouthed rant in front of TV cameras. However, although Taylor welcomed Drogba's apology he confirmed Uefa "expect to take action", though Chelsea may have to wait a number of weeks to hear their fate.

"It was not pleasant to see, not the sort of example one wants," Taylor said. "Uefa has a respect campaign and this just flies in the face of these worthy endeavours."

"The proceedings are instigated by Uefa but the decision is made by the control and disciplinary body, which is quasi-independent," he said.

"They look at all the evidence, including video evidence, the objective and subjective factors, the mitigating circumstances - if any - before they come to some judgment.

"You can speculate, will somebody get this sentence or that sentence? It's pure speculation."

Taylor added: "At the moment I'm not going to confirm whether it's Drogba, Ballack, Chelsea, all three or others - these are the things we're looking at this weekend.

"It could be a number of weeks yet before such a decision will be made."

Uefa will also consider the fate of Manchester United midfielder Darren Fletcher at a disciplinary meeting tomorrow after his semi-final sending off against Arsenal. Replays appeared to show his dismissal, which has ruled him out of the final against Barcelona, was harsh, and United have asked UEFA to consider quashing his ban.

But Taylor believes it might set a dangerous precedent if they pander to the English and European champions.

"Uefa gets accused of a conspiracy in terms of trying to engineer a final which doesn't have two English teams in it," he said. "The more you use discretion the more you leave yourself open to ridiculous accusations like that."

He added: "The matter is being considered by the disciplinary body tomorrow. But as a rule, a player who is sent off will automatically miss the next competition match.

"We try to be as open and responsive as possible but we have a duty to all the other clubs, as well as football itself, to apply the competition rules."