Chelsea Football Club News

• Nickname:Blues
• Founded:1905
• Manager:Roberto Di Matteo

• Ground:Stamford Bridge
• Capacity:42,440

Mourinho denies referee insult

12 Mar 2007 - 08:08:13

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Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho has denied intending to offend referee Mike Riley during his side's FA Cup quarter-final 3-3 stalemate with Tottenham Hotspur.

Mourinho allegedly aimed a tirade in his native Portuguese at Riley during half-time at Stamford Bridge with his side trailing 3-1 at the time.

The Blues responded after the interval to set up a replay following goals from Frank Lampard and Salomon Kalou, but Mourinho could face action from the Football Association for his angry blast at the Yorkshire official.

"If you listen to me speaking, I say the kind of word you mention 10 times in every 15 words," he explained.

"If you have a microphone on the dugout I say that during the game 20 times easy. The word can be abusive if you understand it as an abusive word.

"I tell the word to my players and myself when I am not happy. It is something I say when the ball hits the post. I say it 50 times in a game, 50 times in training and I don't want to be offensive.

"I can be emotional but I am polite. I never want to be offensive with somebody. It is the same word I use to criticise the ball when it goes out of play."

Mourinho though did admit to being frustrated by Riley's performance both on Sunday and earlier in the season.

"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 added.

"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."