Uefa has charged Jose Mourinho, the Real Madrid coach, with "unsporting conduct" over allegations he ordered two players to get themselves sent off in a Champions League match.
Uefa's disciplinary committee will investigate Mourinho as well as the players Xabi Alonso, Sergio Ramos, Iker Casillas and Jerzy Dudek. Their cases will be heard on Tuesday.
Mourinho appeared to send instructions from the bench before Alonso and Ramos received second yellow cards for time-wasting late in Tuesday's 4-0 victory over against Ajax.
Their expulsions meant they should serve one-match suspensions in a meaningless group match against Auxerre next month, then start the knockout rounds in February with a clean slate.
Elsewhere, Alex McLeish has slammed the treatment of referees in Scotland and believes it will be "horrendous" if this weekend's matches are affected by strike action.
Yesterday, Scotland's top-level referees confirmed they would be standing by their decision to withdraw their labour this weekend.
All matches in the Premier League and the Alba Cup final are expected to be played after the Scottish Football Association announced plans to bring in officials from other European nations.
But matches in the Scottish Football League could be called off, and the former Scotland and Rangers manager McLeish, now in charge of Birmingham City in the English Premier League, has urged for the dispute to be resolved "for the sake of the game" north of the border.
He said: "It is pretty sad that it has come to this. The Scottish refs deserve better, deserve better treatment.
"People up in Scotland have got to get a grip of themselves and stop slaughtering them every week. We should know when to draw a line - and we've gone over that line."
