LONDON, Feb 4: Blackburn and Chelsea have both been charged by the Football Association with failing to control their players following the mass brawl that erupted when the two sides met at Ewood Park on Wednesday.

The ill-tempered match, which Chelsea won 1-0, was marred by no fewer than four separate fracas, starting with the mass confrontation that followed Paul Dickov's late challenge on Petr Cech as he tried to reach the rebound from a penalty saved by the goalkeeper.

After the match, Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho accused Blackburn of having attempted to kick his players out of the game, as well as having the pitch watered to make it heavy and hard to play.

The two clubs have until Feb 21 to respond to the charges. The FA is already awaiting an explanation from Mourinho of remarks he made after his side's League Cup semi-final, first leg against Manchester United.

Mourinho is expected to be fined heavily for claiming that United manager Alex Ferguson had influenced the referee during a half-time chat and that the visitors' second-half tactics had amounted to "fault and fault, cheat and cheat". -AFP