SOCCER - News: Jose Mourinho's acrimonious feud with William Gallas degenerated into open warfare last night when the Chelsea manager authorised a club statement alleging the French defender threatened to score a deliberate own goal before his transfer to Arsenal.

On another front the Makelele saga rumbled on with France coach Raymond Domenech refusing to back down in the row over the selection of the midfielder and criticising Mourinho's use of the word 'slave' when talking about France's refusal to accept the player's retirement wishes.

Mourinho earlier accused Gallas of effectively blackmailing Chelsea by saying he would be sent off and make pre-meditated mistakes to cost them goals, as well as refusing to take part in last season's FA Cup semi-final against Liverpool.

In an extraordinarily aggressive move that may leave the English FA feeling compelled to intervene, Chelsea said they were releasing the "full facts" because Gallas had, in their opinion, spread lies about his reasons for wanting to leave Stamford Bridge.

The club say he demanded a weekly salary of £100,000 and when this was turned down they believe he held an illegal meeting with representatives from Milan.

"He continues to attack Jose Mourinho and this cannot be left unchallenged," said a statement verified by Chelsea's lawyers. "We made Gallas a very substantial and attractive new contract offer towards the end of last season. This was rejected.

"When Jose Mourinho generously offered him a way back into the 'family' this was thrown back in the manager's face. The manager told him that, even if he did not agree a new contract but returned to the 'family' and abided by the rules, he would still select the best players available and would not punish him playing-wise. However, despite meetings to try to resolve the problems, Gallas made it clear he would never play for Chelsea again."

Matters reached a head, according to Chelsea, before their opening Premiership game of the season against Manchester City "when only four defenders were available, John Terry was doubtful with an injury and he (Gallas) refused to play."

Mourinho alleges that Gallas then threatened to score past Petr Cech and, failing that, commit a red-card offence. Gallas allegedly went on to state he would make deliberate mistakes to allow City's attackers to score. Chelsea say they had no choice but to take the threats seriously.

"Clearly this was a totally unacceptable situation for the manager, the team and the club. So a collectively agreed solution in Chelsea's interests had to be found; hence his departure," according to the Chelsea statement.

In the Makelele affair Mourinho likened the treatment of the 33-year-old defender as that of a slave and his comments sparked a war of words which continues.

The defender told the French federation he wanted to quit international duty after their World Cup final defeat to Italy and underlined his decision in a letter to French officials on August 22nd - two days before his call-up for France's Euro 2008 qualifiers.

Domenech now claims that Mourinho's use of the term 'slave' is both 'staggering and insulting' while defender Lilian Thuram insists the Chelsea coach was simply trying to be offensive.

Domenech declared: "To use that term is staggering. There are people who died to free themselves of slavery. To use this term is insulting. I did not give Makelele an option, I imposed his return."

Under FIFA rules, if Makelele had refused to play for France he could have been suspended from playing for Chelsea.

However, the 33-year-old midfielder may well be forced to miss out on their re-match with Italy on Wednesday.

Worryingly for Chelsea, Makelele remains doubtful after collecting an ankle injury which saw him retire from the action in the 58th minute.

Meanwhile, Guus Hiddink, often touted as a replacement for Mourinho when the Chelsea manager moves on, has revealed that he visited Stamford Bridge on several occasions last season, meeting the chief executive Peter Kenyon and owner Roman Abramovich.

The Dutchman, currently in charge of Russia, laughed off the idea that he might take over from Mourinho, but admitted that the prospect of managing in the Premiership is appealing.

The 60-year-old, in Moscow where he takes charge of his first competitive match as Russia's manager against Croatia tomorrow, met the Chelsea hierarchy for the first time late last year. Guardian Service