Chelsea have asked for Saturday’s FA Cup quarter-final at Middlesbrough to be played behind closed doors because their fans can no longer buy tickets.
The government issued a licence to allow Chelsea to continue playing after freezing the assets of Russian owner Roman Abramovich.
Under the terms, Chelsea are not allowed to sell tickets to any matches.
Middlesbrough said they will challenge the “bizarre” and “ironic” request “in the strongest possible terms”.
The Football Association will make a decision on Wednesday.
Championship club Middlesbrough, who have knocked out Premier League sides Manchester United and Tottenham in this year’s competition, said the request was “without any merit whatsoever”.
“To suggest as a result that MFC and our fans should be penalised is not only grossly unfair but without any foundation,” read a Middlesbrough statement.
Chelsea Supporters Trust asked the club to withdraw the request, saying it “does not benefit” any fans.
Chelsea want to maintain ‘sporting integrity’
Chelsea had sold between 500 and 600 tickets of their 4,620 allocation before the licence placing restrictions on the club came into effect on 10 March.
The measure was introduced to stop oligarch Abramovich, who is looking to sell Chelsea, from profiting.
He has been banned from being a club director and the sale of Chelsea has been delayed after the UK government sanctioned him over his connection to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Chelsea said they made the request “with extreme reluctance” to the FA not to allow fans of either side at the Riverside “for matters of sporting integrity”.
A statement read: “Chelsea FC recognises that such an outcome would have a huge impact on Middlesbrough and its supporters, as well as our own fans who have already bought the limited number of tickets that were sold before the licence was imposed, but we believe this is the fairest way of proceeding in the current circumstances.”
Middlesbrough said: “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.”
