Faria warned at drop of a hat

UEFA officials made Chelsea coach Rui Faria remove his woolly hat to prove he was not in communication with banned boss Jose Mourinho during the Champions League quarter-final second leg in Munich on Tuesday night.

The club’s ongoing feud with UEFA has gathered intensity after it was revealed the officials confronted the fitness coach during the half-time interval at the Olympic Stadium.

Faria was ushered into a side room and told to remove his hat after allegations he passed on messages from Mourinho to assistants Baltemar Brito and Steve Clarke during the first leg at Stamford Bridge last week.

Faria’s role in the first game came under further scrutiny when he conducted the pre-match press conference on Monday in place of the banned Mourinho.

Mourinho had been expected to sit and watch the return leg from a VIP seat in the Olympic Stadium but was forced to return to the team’s hotel to watch the match because of invasive television cameras.

However, UEFA were clearly concerned that Mourinho’s disappearance was merely another ploy to enable him to communicate with the bench away from prying eyes.

Their worries intensified when they saw Faria’s woolly hat pulled down over his ears once more and decided to challenge the fitness coach during the interval.

To Chelsea’s anger, Faria was marched into a side room, accompanied by two UEFA officials who then asked him to remove his hat. Despite protests from Faria, who claimed such a request was not in the UEFA rules, he duly removed his hat to prove he had no communication device attached to either ear.

The coach is then alleged to have asked both officials if they would like to look in his ears just to ensure he was not hiding a tiny phone device.

Chelsea refused to comment on UEFA’s actions but are understood to be extremely unhappy with UEFA’s actions which clearly suggested their staff were suspected of trying to beat the two-game touchline ban handed to Mourinho for bringing the game into disrepute.

The revelation comes hot on the heels of Chelsea’s displeasure over the lack of protection for Mourinho in Munich.

They were already waiting for an explanation from the governing body as to why television cameras were allowed to get so close to their manager as he took his seat.

Mourinho found the constant surveillance too much and opted to walk out of the ground and return to the team hotel in a taxi.

Meanwhile Chelsea chief executive Peter Kenyon personally phoned his Manchester United counterpart David Gill to insist that he met Rio Ferdinand by chance in a London restaurant at the weekend.

Once rumours of a meeting started to surface in public on Tuesday, in a concerted effort to avoid more ‘tapping up’ claims it is understood Kenyon immediately phoned Gill to reassure him the club had no interest in the England centre-back while Chelsea released a statement threatening legal action against anyone suggesting the meeting was anything other than accidental.

However, those moves did not prevent United boss Alex Ferguson reacting with fury to the news that Ferdinand had been seen with his agent Pini Zahavi and Kenyon in London restaurant Carpaccio on Saturday night.

Ferdinand did however manage to persuade Ferguson during talks at the Carrington training ground yesterday that he has every intention of staying with United.