Jose slates Riley display
12 Mar 2007 - 07:10:10
Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho hit out at referee Mike Riley after the official booked eight players in the Blues' 3-3 FA Cup sixth round draw at home to Tottenham Hotspur.
Mourinho was frustrated by Riley's performance and exchanged words with the Yorkshire official at half-time at Stamford Bridge.
The Portuguese said afterwards: "In my opinion he gave too many decisions against us. I don't think they were big decisions. But every free-kick in midfield was against Chelsea.
"I am not saying they had a big influence on the result, I am not saying that. But too many free-kicks is a big frustration for the players. It breaks the intensity of the game and we are not happy. But that's football.
"I approached the referee at half-time, always in a polite way. That's the way I do it, when I do it. But it worked in another way because the second half was worse than the first.
"He replied by asking me to let him do his work, that kind of stuff. I am polite, he was polite. There were no confrontation problems.
"But all season was not an easy one in our matches with Mr Riley. Against Liverpool, Mohamed Sissoko should be sent off, he wasn't. One minute later Michael Ballack is out and we have to play with ten men for a lot of the time.
"We go to Reading, we play with ten men, we lose two goalkeepers and not even a yellow card and today, there were too many decisions against us.
"But what can I say? He is a good referee so I hope the next time we have him, things go back to normal.
"It was a great game with many mistakes. This is always the case when there are so many goals in a game.
"We made defensive errors, but showed great spirit. We have to be happy. We were out of the FA Cup at half-time, but we deserve the replay."
