"Those 12,500 season-ticket holders who purchased for Anderlecht, and also buy for Real Betis and Liverpool, will receive a retrospective discount of five pounds per ticket, 15 pounds in total," said chief executive Peter Kenyon.

Chelsea, who defeated Anderlecht 1-0 at Stamford Bridge, play hosts to Champions League Group G rivals Betis on October 19 and Liverpool on December 6.

"We are still working out the logistics on the discount but it is likely to come off the cost of the Liverpool ticket," said Kenyon in a statement on the club's website.

Kenyan said that two discounted ticket policies that were in place for the previous campaign were inadvertently dropped by the Premier League champions this season.

"On these two issues the board has to make a straightforward apology to our fans," he added.

"These were overlooked in the recent overhaul of our ticketing policy.

"A lot has been written about the size of the crowd against Anderlechi and the debate that followed.

"From the board's point of view we want to stress we recognise the sensitivities over ticket prices and know that our prices are at the higher end of the market."

Fans and media criticised the high prices against Anderlecht and the game attracted a crowd of 29,575, well short of the 42,522 capacity.

The cheapest ticket for Chelsea's opening Champions League match of the season was 35 pounds.

-- Reuters

FIFA SUSPENDS STOICHKOV
London
Bulgaria coach Hristo Stoichkov has been suspended for four matches after making what FIFA has described as "defamatory remarks" following the World Cup qualifier with Sweden in Stockholm earlier this month.

Soccer's world governing body announced on Friday that its disciplinary committee had also fined Stoichkov, Bulgaria's most successful player, 20,000 Swiss francs (15,610 dollars).

It said the punishment was handed down after "remarks made by Stoichkov to the media in which he attacked the integrity of the UEFA president and FIFA vice-president Lennart Johansson."

The 39-year-old coach made his remarks to reporters about Swede Johansson, who left the stadium when the score was 2-0.

"According to the committee's report, Stoichkov was quoted by the media as stating that Lennart Johansson had manipulated the above mentioned match," the FIFA statement added.

The Bulgarian Football Union (BFU) has already apologised to UEFA and Johansson over Stoichkov's behaviour at the Group Eight qualifier, which his team lost 3-0 ending any hopes they still had of reaching the 2006 finals in Germany. -- REUTERS