INTERVIEW

Monday, February 14, 2:27pm London Time
Wise: We'll take on Dons at paintball
By Adrian Curtis and Leo Spall


Dennis Wise issued a bizarre paintball challenge to Wimbledon's players before the mass tunnel brawl at Chelsea on Saturday.

Wise made his combative comments in the matchday programme and was then invlovled in the incidents which seem certain to end in misconduct charges by the Football Association.

At least 16 players were involved in the brawl that lasted for four minutes in which it is believed Chelsea manager Gianluca Vialli was punched as he tried to defuse the situation and his Wimbledon counterpart Egil Olsen was pinned against a wall.

The fixture has a history of bad feeling between the players and when asked about this in the programme, Wise said: 'Why do you always want to talk about the fights? You don't need to put it in, let's talk about the football. Wimbledon always seemed to do really well against Chelsea.'

The Chelsea captain also goes on to describe his former team-mate and Wimbledon coach Mick Harford, who was also thought to have been involved in the tunnel incident: 'He was very hard. Off the pitch and on. He was someone you wouldn't really want to mess about with.'

The paintball challenge came after Vialli gave his team the day off training last week for a morning of mock combat as a team-building exercise. 'We had a lot of fun. I'll tell you what, we'd take Wimbledon on at paintballing as well as football! We'd be a very effective against a big side.'

The police have confirmed that they were aware of the incident, while the FA are waiting for the report from referee Peter Jones. The official reportedly tried to separate the players by blowing his whistle.

A police spokesman said: 'We can confirm police were alerted to an incident in the tunnel at Chelsea FC after the game. The FA dealt with the incident in-house and there is no call for police action.'