It is understood the club will stick to their line that assistant manager Steve Clarke and security official Les Miles saw Rijkaard in an area forbidden to coaching and playing staff in the Nou Camp stadium last month and reported their concerns to Mourinho.

But, importantly, Mourinho has already back-tracked on his remarks in a Portuguese magazine that he saw Rijkaard enter the referee’s dressing room and admitted his subsequent comments were made because he trusted his staff.

In such circumstances UEFA’s disciplinary panel are expected to impose a fine and touchline bans if they find Chelsea and their staff guilty, meaning the club is almost certain to escape the severest-possible punishment of expulsion from the Champions League.

Chelsea were not planning to send any representatives to the disciplinary hearing here in Nyon, Switzerland, but they have had lawyers working on a written defence strongly rebutting UEFA’s claims.

Their main aim will be to disprove UEFA’s claim the whole saga was a series of deliberate lies by Mourinho and the whole club in order to influence the outcome of the second leg of the Champions League knockout round.

When the charges were announced, UEFA released a statement saying Chelsea had deliberately created “a poisoned and negative ambience” by their official complaint alleging the meeting between Frisk and Rijkaard had taken place.

If Chelsea feel they have been given a fair hearing – something that chief executive Peter Kenyon has seriously questioned following the accusatory language used by UEFA and their communications director William Gaillard last week – and are cleared or merely fined then it is likely they will accept the decision, especially if UEFA make it clear they believe Clarke and Miles were merely mistaken rather than deceitful.

Should any lengthy touchline bans be applied, or even more severe sanctions, then they are likely to request personal hearings to appeal. UEFA say a decision is expected mid-afternoon.

The case is an unprecedented one in football so predicting the outcome with absolute accuracy is extremely difficult.

However, one senior UEFA figure from continental Europe with years of experience on the organisation’s disciplinary panel believes it will not result in Chelsea’s expulsion from the Champions League.

He said: “This is a serious case but I would not have thought it would result in such a sanction. That is the most severe punishment and this would be a first offence.

“A fine and possibly a touchline ban for the officials is more likely. The fact that the referee has now announced his retirement after receiving the threats from fans has not helped matters for Chelsea but, strictly speaking, it should not affect the case against them.”